# Who steals shopping carts?! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576 "2006-05-13T01:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/41 "2006-05-14T18:05:45Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > That’s fucked up. If I may say so. feh. If that rattles you I’d better not tell you of the hundreds of other little bastard things we pulled. 'Course the statute of limitations has expired 35 years ago. My brother is younger than me but was still a bad influence. How does that work? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/42 "2006-05-15T01:12:38Z")
> [@Denis](#): > > Well, if we’re gonna do Hanna-Barbera and more particulary, _Land of the Lost_, I’d rather go sleestak on a cart thief. Just to nitpick: Land of the Lost was a Sid & Marty Kroft production, not Hanna-Barbera. We return you to your shopping cart theft, already in progress. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/43 "2006-05-15T02:24:17Z")
Did the shopping cart thief have very greasy hair? It seems to be a common denominator with people who have mental health issues. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/44 "2006-05-15T02:34:38Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > That’s fucked up. If I may say so. > > For all those who say they would have taken the cart back: Really? You would have wrestled the grocery cart away from the crazy person? I hear they bite when threatened. I wouldn’t risk it. 😛 I’m not very confrontational so I probably would have just ran off to go down the health and hygeine aisles and picked up some suppositories, depends, Wart-Off and anything else embarrassing I could find, then I would have found the lady again and waited for her to leave the cart or look away and then I would have put all of it in her cart. Then maybe I’d go back and say “Hey, lady! That’s my cart!” Then when she said “No, it’s not!” I’d say (loudly) “Oh gee, I’m sorry I guess you’re right because I don’t need Depends and enemas.”. Then I would have walked away. [sub]Okay, probably not.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/45 "2006-05-15T05:05:33Z")
Yeah, I don’t think I would have wrestled the cart away from the crazy lady, either. I would have been too stunned by the outright weirdness of it to know _what_ to do. I probably would have just walked away, shaking my head, and gone and got another cart. (“Snack food fight, Aisle 10!”) ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/46 "2006-05-15T09:08:40Z")
Place a plastic dog turd on your groceries next time you leave your cart. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/47 "2006-05-15T12:39:00Z")
You know, if you had just leaned over and run your tongue down the length of the shopping cart handle, it would have been yours again. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/48 "2006-05-15T14:24:41Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > You know, if you had just leaned over and run your tongue down the length of the shopping cart handle, it would have been yours again. **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!** That’s scarier than anything I read in the ghost threads. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/49 "2006-05-15T14:48:03Z")
Jeez. Don’t any of you guys own handcuffs? One end locked around the handle, the other about one of your wrists. I defy any cart thief to get away with your cart then. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/50 "2006-05-15T15:08:31Z")
Embarassing story: Wife and I are at local supermarket. I’m out wandering on my own and later go looking for her. I find her in an aisle checking out some frozen food. I walk up to our cart and glance in it. There’s some kind of food in it that I’m puzzled about. I lift the item out of the cart, hold it up and exclaim “Gross! Why in the heck are you buying this?” She calmly pulls her head out of the freezer, gives me a “why did I marry this guy” type look and responds “Dear, that’s not our cart.” at which time I turn to see other lady looking at me wondering why I’m pulling stuff out of her cart. “Uh, I’m going back over to the magazine rack.” (slinks away) ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/51 "2006-05-15T20:26:09Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > You know, if you had just leaned over and run your tongue down the length of the shopping cart handle, it would have been yours again. They’ve just done some research on the most bacteria laden areas we come into contact and yes, shopping cart handles came first or second I think. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/52 "2006-05-15T21:02:42Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > > [@lieu](#): > > > > You know, if you had just leaned over and run your tongue down the length of the shopping cart handle, it would have been yours again. > > They’ve just done some research on the most bacteria laden areas we come into contact and yes, shopping cart handles came first or second I think. So, it’d be _cleaner_ after **lieu** licks it? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/53 "2006-05-15T21:18:22Z")
Happens to me all the time at Lowe’s, only they dump all my stuff out first. (By all the time, I mean twice, because now I watch it.) I’d understand if it were one of those special carts for lumber or the ones for bags of peat and stuff, because there’s never enough of those, but this is always just a regular red plastic cart. Drives me nuts. It’d be _easier_ just go to get a new cart than it is to dump my stuff out of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/54 "2006-05-15T21:47:28Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > My brother used to pull that when we were kids (60’s & 70’s. Before the super mega grocery stores). When we were bored waiting for our parents shopping he’d put stuff in other peoples carts. I remember once he put some expensive candy in a ladies cart who had a kid with her. When she discovered the candy at the checkout she clouted the kid right then & there for trying to pull a fast one on her. (this was back when you could still smack your kid in public and get away with it). You could hear the kid bawling through out the store 'I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it" coupled with the woman yelling “don’t you lie to me you little sneak!” > > We laughed so hard we almost choked on the candy we stole out of the pickamix bin. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I almost choked on my filched pixamix too when I was little. I think it is a built-in safety device. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/55 "2006-05-15T22:00:21Z")
**pkbites** reminds me that back in the early 70s, I really wanted a Batman action figure. I mean, I totally fell in _love_ with it there and then in the supermarket. I wanted the Robin figure too a bit, but Batman was much cooler. I wanted it to the point of insanity. WANT WANT WANT! My mother declined my hour-long whining as we did the shopping, so in a flash of inspiration, I sneaked a Batman from the shelf, then surreptitiously slipped it into the trolley of the woman in front of us at the checkout. When she came to pay, and realised she’d bought this thing, my mother ended up being embarrassed into buying back off the woman, and I got my Batman. Go me! ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/56 "2006-05-15T22:44:12Z")
I wander off from my cart all the time, looking at stuff. It’s not usually a problem. Just a few days ago, though, I parked my cart to go through the produce section, and it was missing when I got back. Thinking I’d misremembered where I left it, I started roaming the produce section looking for it. (This is in a very small store, so there’s only a couple of center bins plus the bins around the sides.) About the third time around, I spotted my cart, being pushed by some woman. I was a bit worried about talking to her, because she was kind of glaring at me as I looked over the cart to be sure it was mine before approaching her, and I wondered if she was going to claim it was her cart. I couldn’t imagine why she would, but I was on my lunch hour, so having to redo my shopping would have been a problem. But my biggest fear before talking to her was the she wouldn’t speak English (the store’s in the Asian section of town and there are quite a few new immigrants that shop there), which would have made the conversation quite a bit more difficult. However, when I pointed out that she had my cart, she apologized profusely and gave it back. She’d only added a bag of green onions, which I almost didn’t manage to get back to her she ran away so fast. The really odd part was that she only had like two things in her cart (which she’d left sitting in the aisle near mine), while I had about a dozen. How could you not notice that you suddenly had 5x the items in your cart?? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/57 "2006-05-16T21:31:25Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > \When she came to pay, and realised she’d bought this thing, my mother ended up being embarrassed into buying back off the woman, and I got my Batman. Go me! You [del]survived[/del] got away with that? That would have been arm-yanking, fierce-whispering time for me. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576/58 "2006-05-18T12:57:11Z")
> [@neofishboy](#): > > As a former meat-cutter I feel I should warn that this course of action can often go weird and unexpected places. In my experience a sharp, loud _Hanna-Barbera_-style pterodactyl scream, if delivered with skill and the proper attitude (lots of volume … BIG BIG EYES!) will tend to resolve most conflicts in a retail situation. The cleaver you were wielding may have had something to do with it too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-steals-shopping-carts/356576.md?page=2)