Anyone discovered “in possession of” a shopping cart that has been stolen from a store may face up to a year in prison under a bill that an Oklahoma congressman is proposing.
According to the bill’s author, business owners informed him that they were losing shopping carts valued at thousands of dollars annually to theft, which is why the measure is necessary.
Others claim that this is just another needless bill that specifically targets the homeless community.
Oklahoma House Bill 1689 (HB 1689) is the bill under consideration.
State Representative Rande Worthen (R-Lawton) suggested amending HB 1689 to include a clause that would make it unlawful in Oklahoma to “remove a shopping cart from the parking area” of a business in order to “permanently or temporarily deprive” the owner of the cart of its use.
Furthermore, it would be unlawful to simply be “in possession of” any cart that has been stolen from a business.
According to Worthen’s plan, anyone found breaking the legislation might face fines ranging from a $500 to a year in jail.
According to Worthen, he has a valid rationale for suggesting it.
“It came to my attention that a lot of the merchants were losing anywhere from 100 or more shopping carts every quarter here in Lawton,” Worthen stated. “And the cost of $200 to $250 each, that adds up even for, you know, a larger company.”
He claims that stores like Walmart informed him that they must replace missing carts at a cost of thousands of dollars annually.
He claims that missing carts frequently wind up in dangerous areas.
‘They end up in the streets and causing a traffic hazard along oftentimes in creeks and waterways and alleyways and things like that,” he stated. “People are pushing them, taking things and just leaving the shopping carts all over town.”
According to Worthen, the purpose of the bill is to only establish a state law that will enable towns to incorporate it into their municipal legislation if they so choose.
“That’s the purpose of the statute, is to allow municipalities to formulate city ordinances dealing with this so they could, um, you know, make it… okay, first time: warning… or, you know, you need to return the shopping cart and do what we used to call field interview,” Worthen stated.
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“Is that going to increase law enforcement’s ability to return those cards back to those folks? That’s the key, is how do we do that,” Young stated. “I just don’t understand this this idea and this content that really exists for the homeless to do creative deals like this, forget the impact of it. Forget what’s possibly it could do to improve. Why do you point that group out? Why aren’t we writing some bills to help eliminate the need of the homeless, to have to utilize property in that way?”
According to Young, Worthen’s bill is the same in his opinion.
“They go together when it comes to uselessness,” Young stated. “Once again, you have a piece of legislation that has no really firm use in our society right now. It is asinine. It is crazy. Let’s talk to the homeless alliance. Let’s talk to the people who are directly involved with these. Let’s talk to the folks who are working to try to help those folks live better. Let let’s talk to them and see what they say.”
