Yesterday my car was AGAIN damaged by a shopping cart left in the parking lot at this Costco. Previously I called the manager when it happened and he said he could observe it on the video monitors and that they would work diligently on the problem. Here is what happens: I am a handicapped person and I park in handicapped spaces. (I have handicapped plates on my car.) People leaves their shopping carts in the spaces between handicapped parking spaces and in the center aisles of the handicapped areas. Some of these people are handicapped and some are not. Yesterday as I was returning to my car after shopping, I just happened to see a man push his empty cart at my car. There were two other empty carts nearby in a parking space. I called to him: "Sir, please return your cart." He turned away and I called out again "Sir, please don't leave your cart here. Abandoned carts damage cars...my car has been damaged before." He turned back and said "So What!" I again asked him to return the cart and he became very angry and made verbal threats and rude gestures. At that point, I got the other two carts and started to return them when he started his car...I thought he was going to back over me, but instead he drove ahead and sped away. As I pushed the carts back to the cart return space, the man circled the parking lot and again made rude gestures and stopped revving his motor. He sped away after a few seconds. (While I was asking the man to return his cart, two Costco employees went by with their ropes to gather up carts and didn't stop and didn't get the carts where I was.)
May I offer a suggestion? Could signage be installed in the handicapped area and marked on the carts asking customers to return carts to the store for the safety of other. (I'm a firm believer in positive signage: "Please return your cart. Handicapped persons need your help in keeping this area free of shopping carts."
I know I can't stop the person who deliberately damages cars with a cart or the person who is angry because handicapped persons have signed parking areas, but I believe some people don't even realize that they are causing a problem. (Ramps can't be deployed when there are carts in the space between spaces; handicapped persons may need extra space to enter/exit their vehicle; etc.)