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If somebody steals your shopping cart the city of Phoenix will fine YOU.
I never cease to be amazed at the way government crooks find ways to steal from people. If you own a store and somebody steals your shopping carts and the city of Phoenix finds the shopping cart they will fine YOU for the stolen shopping cart. The thieves from the city of Phoenix have stolen a little over a third of a million dollars with this form of theft. Phoenix raises store fine to renew cart-retrieval program by Emily Gersema - Jun. 22, 2012 01:34 PM The Republic | azcentral.com Shopping carts in Phoenix abandoned far afield of their home stores are less noticeable these days. Phoenix officials told a City Council subcommittee this week they credit the drop in wayward shopping carts to a 5-year cart-retrieval program in which store owners can be fined $20 for every stray cart traced to their businesses. This week, the City Council voted to increase the fine to $25 per cart and told city staff to negotiate a new contract with the cart-retrieval company, Arizona Cart Services. The company's contract was set to expire on June 30. Council members said the increased fine was needed to cover the cost of the cart-retrieval program. "We're not making money off this program," said Councilman Tom Simplot who represents central Phoenix. "We're simply serving a community need." Since the program's start in July 2007 to April 2012, the city's contractor, Arizona Cart Services, has wrangled 22,017 carts, and was able to issue fines on 18,624 of them. Cart-fine collections have reached more than $365,000 since the program launched. Chris Hallett, Phoenix neighborhood service director, said cart retrievals have dropped every year because stores are taking precautions to ensure shoppers don't run off with their carts and have hired their own retrievers to find carts that have been abandoned in neighborhoods. |