Lawton to charge store owners for retrieval of stolen property after ordinance amendment

Lawton City Council is cracking down on the number of shopping carts that are being abandoned throughout the city. However, some local stores are skeptical of the city's approach after hearing the council's decision to hit owners with fees for abandoned shopping carts in order to retrieve their property.

The City of Lawton is currently in the midst of its ‘No Cart November’ initiative, which is aimed at ridding the streets of abandoned carts throughout the area. This was started back in 2024, around the same time the city passed its anti-camping ordinance. According to a press release sent on Oct. 20, carts will be picked up by the Solid Waste Division at specific locations throughout the month of November. Business owners would then be able to reclaim their carts free of charge.

Now, following a recent city council meeting, according to the passing of an ordinance amendment, the council is requiring retailers to play a more active role in preventing the shopping carts from being taken from their property. However, if that happens, it will come at the retailer's expense, whether they retrieve the carts or not, according to the agenda item's background.

"Failure to retrieve carts may result in the City classifying them as bulk waste under Chapter 22 and charging the associated removal fees."

This active role includes the following:

• Store owners will be required to mark their shopping carts with the retailer’s name.
• Retailers will be required to post signs stating that taking carts from the store premises is illegal.

“This is basically trying to make it so that No Cart Novembers are a thing of the past,” said Public Works Director Michael Watrous. 

The goal of this ordinance is to eliminate the year-long wait for the annual event and give city staff the authority to address the need when it arises. City staff will be able to collect carts that have been labeled a nuisance, store them, and contact retailers for collection. City Manager John Ratliff said that he had gone out in the community to speak with retailers to get their perspective on the matter.

“I think they’re seeing that it’s not just a dollars and cents issue,” Ratliff added. “It’s a community well-being issue. I think they have more skin in the game this time around.”

Other councilmembers chimed in on their conversations with some of the retailers in town. The only stores that were mentioned by name during the discussion were big chain retailers such as Walmart, Dollar General, Aldi, and Target. 

While this type of ordinance is commonly implemented to ensure tax dollars aren't going to cleaning up private property scattered throughout the town, it often has residual effects on smaller business owners.

Dark Roast staff reached out to Discount Foods to get their perspective on the proposed ordinance before the council meeting and spoke with Kendra, the office administrator. According to Kendra, they haven’t started seeing the store's carts go missing until the past month. Since then, she believes they have had 10 carts stolen.

"For every cart they take, it’s one less cart our customers have to use,” she stated. “We’re a small grocery store, we’re not a big corporation like Walmart.” 

Mayor Stan Booker struck one of the items from the agenda which would set the actual fees retailers would be required to pay to retrieve the carts that have been collected. When asked about the ordinances, Kendra said she didn’t feel like it would do anything to actually prevent theft and only punish the smaller retailers.

"I’ve been living here in Lawton for years and I know how costly their fees get,” Kendra said. ”People are going to take these carts regardless.”

In addition to getting the retailers involved, the ordinance also reaffirms that it’s unlawful to steal. At one point in the meeting, Booker explained that the original idea was to notify the retailers of a found cart and give them 72 hours to come and retrieve it. That idea was scrapped after discussing the fact that carts are on wheels and had the chance of not being in the area that the retailer was given.

The Council Fee Committee is expected to discuss the potential fees on November 19 and then present their desired direction to council at the next council meeting on Tuesday, December 2. The ordinance itself that passed is expected to go into effect 30 days after the council meeting.