Retail establishments provide shopping carts for the convenience of customers shopping on the premises of the businesses. A shopping cart that has been removed from the premises of the business and left abandoned on public or private property throughout the City constitutes a public nuisance and a potential hazard to the health and safety of the public; each lost, stolen or abandoned cart shall constitute a separate violation. Shopping carts abandoned on public and private property can create conditions of blight in the community, obstruct free access to sidewalks, streets and other rights-of-way, interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on pathways, driveways, public and private streets, and impede emergency services. It is for these reasons that such lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts are hereby declared to be a public nuisance which shall be subject to abatement in the manner set forth in this chapter, or in any other manner provided by law.

For purposes of this chapter, any shopping cart located on any public or private property other than the premises of the retail establishment from which such shopping cart was removed shall be presumed lost, stolen, or abandoned, even if in the possession of any person, unless such person in possession thereof is: