Sighted: 1 Cart - Utah, United States

A couple mornings ago, as I was taking out the trash, I saw a cart in the parking lot of my apartment complex. It was near the fence that separates the complex from the freeway. I didn't have time to do anything about it right then, but I planned to come back for it later.

The next day, the cart had disappeared, so I figured it had been moved by either the maintenance guys or some of the neighbors' kids (I've seen them playing in and with the abandoned carts from time to time). This morning, however, I found that it had suffered a worse fate. Someone had picked it up and heaved it over the fence.

That's a tall fence, and the cart is one of the largest and heaviest standard shopping carts I've encountered around here, so getting it over the fence would not have been a small feat.


Still, I can't see how anyone would think that imprisoning the cart like this was somehow a good thing. It's no longer an obstacle in the parking area, but what was a minor nuisance has been made into litter that is large, significantly wasteful, and difficult to remove.

I can't do anything about this cart. It's buried in weeds that would send me into allergic fits, and to get to it without climbing over the fence would involve walking down the side of a busy freeway. Perhaps the state Department of Transportation can do something about it when they do their maintenance or during the next round of road construction.


Now all I can do is reach my camera over the fence to document the tragedy. The doomed cart lies in the weeds, wheels dangling uselessly in the air, staring forlornly upward as it rusts in the rain.