Purchasing car abuse in Vienna: Towage leads to grill iron theft!

Purchasing car abuse in Vienna: Towage leads to grill iron theft!

Christina Lindemeier, a doctor from Vienna, had to watch a strange incident that excited the minds while shopping. In a supermarket in Vienna-Landstrasse, she noticed that the right side wall of her shopping cart was missing. This misfortune caused products to fall out of the car when placing a fresh iceberg salad. At the cash register, she informed an employee about the damaged car who did not exactly have good news. "This is already the third or fourth incident," he explained and made the customer aware of a terrifying trend: the grids of the car are cut out with a flex and used as a grill grate. A grill grate from Weber costs over 35 euros - no wonder that this focuses on when shopping in times of increasing inflation.

The sad events around the shopping carts are symptomatic of the current situation in many supermarkets. There are currently only 60 left in a branch where 200 shopping carts were available. The employee reported that some customers take the cars home with them and not bring back. These practices not only lead to a clear loss, but also to a widespread loss of respect for community property. "I feel sad about the disrespect and abuse of shopping carts," said Lindemeier her concern.

The legal framework

In Germany, according to the provisions, it is not allowed to take shopping cart from the supermarket. Annual reports show that around 100,000 shopping carts are stolen annually, which supermarkets have to deal with with loss of around 15 million euros. The value of a shopping cart varies and is between 100 and 250 euros, which illustrates the resulting loss. Some supermarkets try to counteract this by implementing systems that enable the wheels to be blocked as soon as you leave the site.

The borrowing of a shopping cart without permission is considered a "use of use", which is not punishable, but can result in civil law consequences. In the event of real waste, i.e. if a shopping cart is not brought back, this can be punished with a prison sentence of up to five years, as can be read on the Krezrecht-MV.de blog. These legal framework illustrates the problem that must not only be considered morally, but also legally.

an isolated case and its implications

A special story from Germany underlines the dilemma: an 80-year-old woman took out a shopping cart from the park of an EDEKA market, invested 50 cents and used the car for her purchase. After use, the car hiked to her apartment and was used for further purchases. The legal considerations from this story show how difficult the limit between allowed use and theft is to be drawn. The question remains whether the supermarket actually submitted a declaration of intent to transfer the ownership.