http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/11022007.xml
Mon Nov 05 2007 23:46:51 GMT-0600 (CST)
Stolen Shopping Carts Intercepted by Miami CBP 11/02/2007
Miami — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, using X-ray technology at the Port of Miami, recovered 30 stolen Home Depot shopping carts, worth approximately $3,000, in a cargo container transiting through Miami from Ontario, Canada to Trinidad and Tobago.
“The stolen carts are an unusual find for officers who are accustomed to finding stolen vehicles being shipped out of seaports,” said Harold Woodward, director of CBP field operations in Miami, “The discovery of these carts is indicative of CBP’s great efforts to stop the movement of stolen property being imported, exported or transiting through our nation’s ports of entry.”
Shopping cart theft is an ongoing problem usually associated with dense neighborhoods where patrons walk to and from a store, taking carts for convenience or where others steal them for illegal profit or personal use. Shopping carts stolen from private property create numerous problems in communities, where they become an eyesore or are damaged beyond repair.
CBP Officers in Miami account for 30 Home Depot shopping carts that had been stolen and were about to leave the country.
“The Home Depot is pleased to be able to partner with and benefit from the great work that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is doing,” said Anne Manning, a Home Depot spokeswoman.
The carts, which belong to Home Depot, will be returned to the company after being processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Miami-Dade Police Department.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.