The Antelope Valley Times

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Keep Lancaster beautiful, report stray shopping carts

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LANCASTER – The City of Lancaster is encouraging residents to help keep the Antelope Valley beautiful by reporting wayward shopping carts found in Lancaster neighborhoods.

The make this process simple, the City has contracted with the California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corporation. There are three easy ways for residents to report stray shopping carts.

  • Call toll free to (800) 252-4613
  • Report online at www.cscrc.net
  • Download the free CartSnap App for your iPhone

The CartSnap application is available from the iTunes store. Once downloaded, the App allows you to snap a photo of a stray cart, and send it to CartSnap. The shopping cart retrieval service is notified of the cart location and a driver is dispatched to return the cart to its rightful place.

CartSnap has even conducted contests and awarded prizes to participants. For more information on this App, visit www.cartsnap.com.

Filed Under: Lancaster

24 comments for "Keep Lancaster beautiful, report stray shopping carts"

  1. This was a great post, thank you. I live in Northern California (SF Bay Area) and am going to pass the tips here along to my neighbors and community. For whatever reason, we’ve had a rash of stranded carts in our neighborhood and I’ve just gone ahead and reported them on the site listed here — as well as contacting the store to which all THREE belong.

    Side note: Some of the comments listed underneath the article are quite odd. My own opinion is that we’re all in this together and it’s up to each of us to make things better/nicer for one another. Cheers!

  2. Stray shopping carts drive me crazy. LA county has a huge problem with this. Whether I am in the AV, the SCV, the SFV or the LA basin, carts are always stranded.

    When I was in TX, there is a grocery store called Aldi. You put a quarter in the machine to get a cart, and you got the quarter back when you return it. Literally it was the only grocery store there that had no carts lying around, and they said had very few incidences of people stealing them because they wanted their quarter back. This system would work great here.

  3. I think it is high time the Sheriffs if they see them being pushed down the street the theif gets cited.It is theft and those carts cost about 350.00 a cart of more. It’s petty theft and should not be ignored as it’s just a cart. Back a few months I had to go to Palmdale and on Ave S going onto one of the streets before the bridge and 20th East was up on the corner of the St. 15 carts! I mean really? This cost us the consumer who actually pays for our food higher prices. We are already penalized enough having to pay for our food which we obviously have to do, but then forced to feed others who refuse to feed themselves. Then they add salt to the wound, they arelaughing all the way through each isle as they pick and choose food we cannot select. Then they steal the carts to cart home their free loot and leave us holding the bag. I fed up with it.

    • Since the carts are private property it requires the owners to report the items stolen or validate the ownership of the property before anyone can be cited for theft. I don’t know if all of the stores in the AV have the proper documentation on file with the local sheriff to handle this automatically. Generally it’s just easier to be reactive to this blight and report lost carts to be picked up and returned to their owners.

      Additionally some would argue the criminological theory of choice when defending the lack of action by the sheriff on this matter. “Broken Windows Theory/Zero Tolerance” If you go around arresting or even citing those who are in possession of these carts you are discriminating against the poor and homeless. (ATF That’s socioeconomic discrimination not race FTR[FTR: FTR=For The Record]) Slipper people are not a race by definition of the US census, but in fact a socioeconomic group made of up all races) Also if you put sheriff on this then it removes resources from more serious crimes that may actually involve a victim.

      This and tagging are two of my biggest issues with the A.V. I honestly feel that the city of Lancaster, Palmdale and the County of L.A. underestimate the severity of the issue and are under staffed, under supplied and inexperienced in handling these blight issues properly.

      I think that if there was anything I would say is a key to the success of this entire community for every race, religion, or socioeconomic group it would be that people need to realize that they are the first line of policing in the community. It’s the responsibility of every person in this community to report suspicious activity the the proper authorities or even speak up once in a while when some minor issues are boiling up. Peer discussion and a little ” I know how you feel. ” Can go a long way for others, especially when it’s an adult setting a positive example for a child.

      • Adam,
        It has nothing to do with whether the carts are reported stolen or not. The cart thief can’t be charged with the usual theft or possessing stolen property codes. Stealing and/or possessing a cart is governed under the Business and Professions Code, around the 22435 section. It’s a misdemeanor, and therefore, most offenders do get a citation. I’ve seen deputies issuing them on many occasions. But let’s be real, we can’t even keep felons in jail for any length of time, I’m sure the jail time, if any, is short!

  4. The AV Press had an article Sunday on improving home prices in the Antelope Valley. Many areas have improved, well, except West Lancaster with 0 (zero) increase and East Lancaster with slightly more.

    Way to go, Rex ‘The Wonder Dog’ Parris. All your ‘beautification’ has made somebody rich but hasn’t improved home values in your city. But, you don’t care, do you?

    What is in the water in Lancaster that makes people re-elect Parris when it apparently doesn’t really serve them?

    But, it’s a good thing for business cause Lancaster is ‘low rent’. And, that attracts ‘low renters’ if that’s what the people want.

    • No, I think that the off cycle elections and having just a fraction of the population vote is what gets him reelected. Besides the 12000 residents of Quartz Hill that were very vocal and active over the QH WalMart sham couldn’t vote or maybe he would have been replaced by one of the more upstanding candidates that ran against him….. oh yea and that problem too.. lol

  5. Paul said when I was a child,I thoutht as a child and I did childish
    things.But when I became a man I put away childish things ! It is
    rather odd to see adults pulling childish pranks and name calling,
    literally making it a paratice ! No wonder these people don’t use
    their actual name. Imagine some claim to be on boards and serve as
    mediators edidently this would have to be a doctor Jackel and
    Mr. Hyde thing otherwise their career would be in jearpordy with
    any reptable company with all this childish name calling.

    Again this post gives us insight into the mind set that exist and
    shows the tremendous challenge we have to encourage humanity
    to rise above petty conflict. These are adults !!! Unbelievable.

    abdulaskia@yahoo.com

  6. Dear fool. Keeping Lancaster Beautiful presumes it is presently beautiful to begin with. Your assumption must be in brail.

    • Dear Mr./Mrs. Justice Callout,
      Who are you and why do have such a deep-seeded hatred for Lancaster?
      Your constant criticism is ugly and unwarranted. It is also a slap in the face to all the City workers who are busting their behinds to advance this Lancaster forward.
      Rather than waste your time on negative energy, why don’t you just move to another City that is more suitable to your tastes? What is holding you to this City that you hate so much? If I am unhappy, I take steps to better my situation. I don’t just sit around, complain, and appear hateful. Take this as friendly advice. If you don’t like Lancaster, maybe it’s time for you to leave.

      • You represent the mentality of Lancaster so well. Your mayor called the mayor of another city a ‘dufus’ publicly among his many other stupid comments. And, then you wonder why people mock and dislike your city. Look in the mirror.

    • You made me laugh out loud. Funny how religion is such a large component of Lancaster’s governance. Both it and its leaders live in a made up fantasy world disconnected from reality.

      • Keep drinking the Kool-Aid Nicole. Not long before you, Wiley and the remainder of the Hitler youth are convinced you live in Beverly Hills. Then you can re-name your sink hole boulevard to Rodeo Drive and skip merely behind Rex as he walks his poodles on steroids while waving and his adoring constituency. What morons.

        • Does your ignorance have no bounds? The more you talk, the more that people recognize your folly! Keep it up, you are just making yourself look dumb!

          No place is perfect, but it is important to make the most of where we live. Your comments do nothing to help make this a better place, they only tear people down.

  7. Like that is going to help. I have given up reporting a problem w/carts on W. Ave J-4 between 22nd & 25th. Low income housing at 25th W & J-8 backs up there & instead of the inhabitants using sidewalks, they would rather stack up shopping carts to hop the wall in & out of there.
    They have torn down the wrought iron fencing around there as well as knock holes in the block walls to try to make it easier.
    They had broken down the metal gates to make it easier to walk from J-4 to J thru the wash here also. Great place for their drinking, drug use & graffiti. Loved it when I heard noise, looked over the wall & saw a teenage girl walking thru there, pushing a stroller & yelling at a very young child to keep up. Amazing they didn’t slip down the steep cement sides into the dirty water filled w/broken bottles & who knows what else at the time.

    • Cheryl, I drive through j4 from 25th W going East calling in the graffiti and shopping carts,through out the neighborhood. I have been reporting that graffiti and the shopping carts for quite awile. Seems like we had a slow down on graffiti till that certain group of THUK and DH and a few others hit us last week,Young hispanic and a few black kids doing it.

  8. Who can we call when we SEE people taking carts from the stores and strolling down the street without a care in the world????? Pet peeve : People who steal shopping carts!!! So GHETTO!!

  9. I think we need to make Lancaster beautiful by building sidewalks and planting more trees/shrubs on the side of our roads such as Ave L and M heading West towards communities at 60th and 70th West.

    • Keep Lancaster beautiful? How about soundly prosecuting all those bratty taggers that mark up the mailboxes and walls throughout the neighborhoods. Or picking up all the trash in the empty patches of undeveloped land throughout the city. Or fixing up the shopping strip near Ave I and 10th Street, that place is an eyesore!!! I could go on and on…

      • I call in the tagging as soon as I see it, Power boxes only get cleaned off on fridays, the brick walls come within a day or two. Sometimes I drive through the neighborhood looking for it.