Bellevue readies rules on abandoned shopping carts

Step across the street from a mall in east Bellevue and you'll see them everywhere. Shopping carts left behind at bus stops, jammed into bushes, lined up along sidewalks and littered around apartment complexes.

Shoppers abandon about 100 carts a day in east Bellevue, according to city officials. The problem is particularly acute around Crossroads mall, which is surrounded by Crossroads Park and several bus stops and apartment buildings.

But shopping-cart scofflaws may soon find it harder to take the carts away.

City officials, calling the carts a blight and a safety hazard, are set to crack down on the practice. The City Council this week told city staff to write up regulations that will push stores to contain the carts on their property and step up enforcement of a state law that makes shopping-cart theft a misdemeanor.

Carts left on streets and sidewalks are not only dangerous, but hurt the neighborhood's image, said officials.

"It's sort of a 'broken windows' theory," said Councilwoman Claudia Balducci. "... You get a message that lawlessness is OK."

Errant shopping carts have plagued other cities as well. In 2005, Renton and Auburn passed shopping-cart regulations, and Seattle was set to start a pilot project using Department of Corrections work crews, but it fell through because of cost and liability issues, Seattle officials said.

Renton's program — which requires stores to file a cart-containment plan and levies fines if carts aren't rounded up quickly — has helped cut the number of abandoned carts and speeded up the pickup.

In Bellevue, leaders want to declare abandoned shopping carts as public nuisances. A store could be fined for repeat offenses.

Some stores, in Bellevue and other cities, have tagged the carts with electronic devices that go off when the cart leaves the parking lot. Some stores have stopped using carts altogether.

Some Bellevue council members said they're worried the regulations would be too burdensome and gloss over the real culprits: the customers who push the expensive carts away.

"When you take something that's worth $400, it's called... shoplifting," Mayor Grant Degginger said. "And there's an element of personal responsibility that goes along with that."

Under state law, shopping-cart theft can't be proved unless the cart has a label that warns customers that theft is illegal and tells them where to return the cart. Bellevue may start requiring the labels to help enforce the state law, but pursuing the shoplifters is difficult, officials say.

To prosecute, a police officer or other witness would have to see the carts pushed off the property, and many stores don't want to press charges against their customers, city officials said.

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com