Las Cruces police investigate wrongful shopping cart retrieval claims

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — For the first time we are hearing publicly from Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story after last week a homeless woman was reportedly approached by a business and forced to remove her belongings from a shopping cart, which they claimed was theirs.

This incident came just days after an ordinance to address the stolen shopping cart issue in Las Cruces was approved by city councilors.

Shortly after its approval, the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, which provides services to the homeless community, posted on Facebook a photo of a woman with all of her belongings on the street, accusing a business of forcing her to remove it all so they can take their cart back because they didn’t want to get fined.

“We saw it obviously on social media, we contacted Community of Hope to get some more information. Initially, we were told it was Albertsons, unknown which store. So of course we contacted all three stores in Las Cruces, but none of them had any involvement in it. We talked to the district manager. So, we know that it wasn’t Albertsons,” Story said.

KFOX14 asked Chief Story whether there was any evidence to prove that this happened. He responded with “I don’t know the circumstances of this and there’s some possibilities, but I don’t have anything definitive to say one way or the other.”

Chief Story also commented on the pushback he’s received trying to implement an ordinance, which he continues to advocate for to address the shopping cart issue in the community.

I think in many ways it is a political fight,” Story said. “These are small steps, they’re being made into something that they’re not. There are many things being said that are not in the ordinance, that are not going to happen, that can’t happen, so I do think it’s important that we deal with the facts. If you’re upset with what the ordinance says and what it does, that’s one thing, but don’t make it something else and use that to be upset.

KFOX14 spoke to the Executive Director of the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, Nicole Martinez, about the alleged incident.

My staff person came to me and told me about the experience and as she was relaying the information to me, I had no doubt that the incident occurred,” Martinez said. “She actually took the picture of what happened and the woman’s stuff because the lady and her friend, there was another witness there as well, we’re very distraught. My staff person also witnessed the truck and the cart in the back of the truck, and we have been working with LCPD to investigate.

Martinez told KFOX14 a police report was not filed.

“The clients did not file a police report, they’re often wary of interacting with officers. In this particular case, the woman who had all of her belongings taken out of the cart, had found the cart, she didn’t take it from the business. It was an abandoned cart. I think that people who are experiencing poverty oftentimes are targeted and so it was reasonable that she did not feel that she wanted to file a police report,” Martinez said.

Chief Story said while businesses can be fined for not having a permanent tag on their carts, or a proper plan in place to keep their carts secure, he does not condone a situation like this.

“Let me reiterate something, a business under the ordinance is not required to take a cart from someone who has it, only abandoned carts are they supposed to retrieve. So that would be something for us, the police department or code enforcement, to deal with. If it’s just abandoned and no one’s around, we attempt to find that person to get them their property and if not, we would take all the property into safe keeping,” Story said.

The shopping cart ordinance is set to go into effect Oct. 16.

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