{"id":429359,"date":"2026-10-16T09:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429359\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T09:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:54:16","slug":"is-it-illegal-to-not-return-your-shopping-cart-heres-what-florida-law-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429359\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it illegal to not return your shopping cart? Here\u2019s what Florida law says"},"content":{"rendered":"

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Plenty of shoppers have witnessed the sight during a trip to their local grocery or department store \u2014 empty shopping carts, left out in various parts of the parking lot by people too lazy to return them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sight that may annoy some, but it begs a pretty important question.<\/p>\n

Can you get in trouble?<\/p>\n

Funny enough, Florida state law actually addresses this. Per the statutes<\/a>, it\u2019s considered perfectly legal, though specific rules for shopping carts may vary depending on the store.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Do drivers have to signal in turn-only lanes?]<\/p>\n

However, state law does prohibit customers from taking shopping carts off the store\u2019s premises or parking area.<\/p>\n

As such, customers who try to walk a cart full of goods all the way home can face a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. That state law<\/a> also applies to the following:<\/p>\n

Laundry carts<\/p>\n

Dairy cases<\/p>\n

Egg baskets<\/p>\n

Poultry boxes<\/p>\n

Bakery containers<\/p>\n

Florida state statutes also forbid customers from removing, obliterating or alterating any serial number affixed to a store\u2019s shopping cart.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Plenty of shoppers have witnessed the sight during a trip to their local grocery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1776,28,30,29,2261],"class_list":["post-429359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crash","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}