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How to Steal a Cart, Part 1

Picture of Cart Sleuth

For stores with no security or tracking system, stealing a cart is easy to pull off. Customers can just walk off the parking lot with no issues. For stores that do have locking wheel systems, there are still many options for cart thieves:

locking wheel being defeated by lifting the cart up.
Take the wheels off. This may sound crazy, but it's common. Seasoned cart burglars will carry a stash of traditional cart wheels. They simply find a cart in the lot, remove the locking wheel and install their fresh, non-locking wheel and away they go.
Get a lift in. This tends to only work if the cart is not loaded with groceries or if there is a two person crew. Once you identify where the wheel locking line is buried, you simply lift the cart up over the line for a few steps, set the cart down and continue.
  • Trunk space. Smaller, more maneuverable carts are becoming more popular with shoppers that make frequent trips or don't need to shop for a whole family. These carts are also popular targets for theft. Because of their size, they can easily fit in the back of most cars or in the trunk. These carts are often used to shuttle things around at condominium communities, apartments or other large residential areas. Tracking technology has even caught these being used by local construction in nearby sites or buildings.
  • Use a getaway vehicle. Pickup trucks are a great mass cart theft getaway vehicle. You can simply drive up to an unattended cart corral, load up several carts and drive away. You don't have to worry about lifting the locking wheels over a buried line or taking them off. Just through them in the back of the truck and drive off.‍
  • Completely ignore it. Cart wheels don’t have the best reputation for performance and customers often don’t care, or can think the locked up wheel is simply your usual shopping cart wheel experience. Customers (thieves or honest ones) will simply push the cart until the locking wheel breaks or flat spots. If its just an annoyed customer, you now have a bigger problem: replacing the wheel when it didn’t actually help you stop any theft.

There are many ways for carts to leave your lot. Most theft prevention measures are a band-aid and easily defeated by the methods we just described here. If you really want to get ahead of your cart loss issues, we recommend a cart tracking program.