Shopping cart ordinance already stirring controversy, as cart is seized from homeless resident

Las Cruces Bulletin

Days after a contentious city council meeting ended with the passage of new laws aimed at curbing the presence of shopping carts and “aggressive” solicitation, it’s clear that the debate is far from over with much of the discourse unspooling online.

Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, the area’s largest resource for unhoused residents, posted on Facebook that a woman using a shopping cart to ferry her belongings had a cart taken from her. Her belongings, the post said, were scattered across the pavement.

“Yesterday a business approached this woman, threw all of her belongings on the street and took the cart back to their business (they don't want to get fined even though the ordinance is not yet in effect),” the post on Aug. 7 said, calling for donations of suitcases.

The following day, the account posted thanks to people who contributed suitcases and rolling devices, adding, “We are still working out a sustainable alternative to carts as the ordinance effective date draws near.”

Nicole Martinez, the executive director of Community of Hope, said that the shelter does not typically post about encounters like this, which she said happen frequently, and that the intention was not to inspire a witch hunt on the unnamed business.  

Martinez did not divulge the store's name, but the Bulletin confirmed that the accusations were leveled against employees of a local Albertsons. Jeremy Story, chief of the Las Cruces Police Department, said officers were aware of the claims.

“All three Albertsons stores have denied any of their employees were involved in that incident,” Story told the Bulletin. “Almost all retailers do not allow their employees to intervene in shoplifting and would not allow their employees to try to recover a cart from someone’s possession.”

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