City shopping cart laws pass

The Shelton City Council on Tuesday evening gave final approval to shopping cart ordinances designed to help prevent their theft and abandonment on streets, in the woods and in ravines.

The council gave preliminary approval at its Sept. 3 meeting. The laws goes in effect Jan. 1, 2025. An estimated 300 shopping carts are stolen from Shelton stores each year.

The new requirements do not apply to any business that has 15 or fewer shopping carts or contain less than 3,000 square feet of retail space.

The ordinance requires the bigger stores to have “security measures” to prevent the removal of shopping carts from the store’s property. They can include electronically activated self-breaking wheels, poles mounted to the shopping carts that prevent them from being taken outside, bollards, chains, the use of a cart patrol and retrieval company, dedicated security personnel and other measures.

The shopping carts must have identification signs. The city will use the signs to notify the owner of a lost, stolen or abandoned shopping cart. The store owner will reimburse the city for the pickup and return of the carts.

The ordinance also calls for charging anyone removing a cart from a store’s property with shopping cart theft, a misdemeanor. Anyone who knowingly possesses a shopping cart without the written permission of the owner will be charged with possession of stolen property in the third degree, a gross misdemeanor.

The owners of a lost, stolen or abandoned shopping cart that is “relocated or otherwise disposed” by the city will be liable for a flat fee of $100 per cart. The fees will have to be paid within 60 days and could be referred to a collection agency after that.

An amendment added at the Sept. 3 meeting fines stores $200 for not complying with the requirements.