Fairfield Cracking Down On Shopping Cart Theft, Charging Businesses For Retrieval
FAIRFIELD (CBS13) — With shopping carts disappearing left and right, the city of Fairfield passed a new law on Tuesday that doesn't just go after thieves.
Thieves aren't just stealing the goods inside stores, they're taking off with shopping carts at an alarming rate.
At $200 each, it's a crime that's costing business owners a lot of money.
Fairfield city leaders say they find 150 abandoned carts all over the city each month, with some blocking traffic.
"We can't not do anything anymore," said City Councilwoman Pam Bertani. "The shopping carts are becoming not only blight, but public safety hazards."
The new law says business owners will be given three days to pick up abandoned carts after being notified by the city. If owners fail to do so, they must pay the city the cost of retrieval, at $3 a cart.
If they don't pick up their abandoned carts three times in six months, the fine jumps to $50 a day the city holds the cart. And if the city finds 20 carts in 90 days, that business owner will have to pay for security improvements, and city fees to gets its plan approved.
Bertani says those fines are part of the city trying to get businesses on board with its plan.
"It's really more of a 'Let's join forces' kind of attitude," she said.
While Alejandro Barajas, whose uncle owns Mexico Meat and Market, doesn't entirely agree, he admits the law might just work. HIs uncle is tire of the crime costing him a lot of money every month.
Ten stores who already have their shopping carts retrieved for them will be exempt from the law, which takes effect in March.
