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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Trolley thieves EXPOSED
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Supermarkets lose up to 100 trolleys each month. They are either stolen, missing or are found abandoned. Amanda Tan & Yeo Sam Jo trawl the streets and 12 supermarkets to find out where these trolleys end up, who takes them, and why. </TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
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First, they are wheeled away. Then abandoned. and sometimes supermarket trolleys end up being used to cart cleaners' brushes and brooms. -- ST PHOTOS: AMANDA TAN, YEO SAM JO
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AT DOWNTOWN East yesterday, two women emerged from NTUC FairPrice and had difficulty carrying their bags of groceries to the nearby Costa Sands Resort.
Their solution: Push the trolley from the shopping centre to the chalet, where they were staying for the weekend.
The women, who refused to be named, claimed to be Hong Kong tourists on holiday and cited convenience as their excuse for walking away with the trolley.
'We have to buy a lot of things for our barbecue,' said one woman in Mandarin. 'It was quite a distance to carry.'
The other woman said: 'We saw other people doing it, so we just followed.'
Indeed.
When The Straits Times visited Costa Sands Resort Downtown East, it found at least two other FairPrice trolleys abandoned in the compound.
Mr Prakash Gartoula, a cleaner at the resort, sees people wheeling these trolleys to their chalets about three times a day.
'Some return the trolleys,' said the 28-year-old. 'But most of them don't.'
He added that the problem is most prevalent on Friday nights, when many people check into the resort and buy a lot of groceries for their stay.
Cleaners at Goldkist Beach Resort in the East Coast echo Mr Gartoula's claims.
There, ST found at least four abandoned trolleys from FairPrice and Giant Hypermarket yesterday evening.
The cleaners themselves were using them as make-shift carriers for cleaning equipment and rubbish.
Workers at both resorts said supermarket staff come around once in a while to retrieve the trolleys.
At Parkway Parade's Giant Hypermarket, packer David Lee retrieves about three trolleys from outside the mall every day.
'These people are very inconsiderate,' said the 50-year-old. 'When they chuck the trolleys, it is us who have to go out there and push them all the way back.
'Some people will burn or spoil the lock, and there will be no more coins left in the (deposit) slot.'
At Ang Mo Kio Hub's FairPrice, retail assistant Steven Tang, 22, receives several calls a week about stray trolleys. He also has to go out to retrieve them.
At least three residents in the area admitted to wheeling trolleys back home.
Retiree Sim Swee Leng, 70, said: 'My wife and I have too many groceries to carry, so we use the trolley. Sometimes we chain it to the railing outside our house ...and return it when we are free.'
But Mr Teo Thian Chua, 73, who was pushing his trolley back to the store, said he or his family members always return their trolley immediately: 'I am only borrowing it and will definitely return it.'
Mr Tang can see the customer's point of view: 'Sometimes we see an auntie with a trolley full of stuff, and we just cannot bear to ask her to return the trolley and carry everything by hand.
'So we just close one eye, and hopefully they return it.'
[email protected] [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Supermarkets lose up to 100 trolleys each month. They are either stolen, missing or are found abandoned. Amanda Tan & Yeo Sam Jo trawl the streets and 12 supermarkets to find out where these trolleys end up, who takes them, and why. </TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
First, they are wheeled away. Then abandoned. and sometimes supermarket trolleys end up being used to cart cleaners' brushes and brooms. -- ST PHOTOS: AMANDA TAN, YEO SAM JO
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AT DOWNTOWN East yesterday, two women emerged from NTUC FairPrice and had difficulty carrying their bags of groceries to the nearby Costa Sands Resort.
Their solution: Push the trolley from the shopping centre to the chalet, where they were staying for the weekend.
The women, who refused to be named, claimed to be Hong Kong tourists on holiday and cited convenience as their excuse for walking away with the trolley.
'We have to buy a lot of things for our barbecue,' said one woman in Mandarin. 'It was quite a distance to carry.'
The other woman said: 'We saw other people doing it, so we just followed.'
Indeed.
When The Straits Times visited Costa Sands Resort Downtown East, it found at least two other FairPrice trolleys abandoned in the compound.
Mr Prakash Gartoula, a cleaner at the resort, sees people wheeling these trolleys to their chalets about three times a day.
'Some return the trolleys,' said the 28-year-old. 'But most of them don't.'
He added that the problem is most prevalent on Friday nights, when many people check into the resort and buy a lot of groceries for their stay.
Cleaners at Goldkist Beach Resort in the East Coast echo Mr Gartoula's claims.
There, ST found at least four abandoned trolleys from FairPrice and Giant Hypermarket yesterday evening.
The cleaners themselves were using them as make-shift carriers for cleaning equipment and rubbish.
Workers at both resorts said supermarket staff come around once in a while to retrieve the trolleys.
At Parkway Parade's Giant Hypermarket, packer David Lee retrieves about three trolleys from outside the mall every day.
'These people are very inconsiderate,' said the 50-year-old. 'When they chuck the trolleys, it is us who have to go out there and push them all the way back.
'Some people will burn or spoil the lock, and there will be no more coins left in the (deposit) slot.'
At Ang Mo Kio Hub's FairPrice, retail assistant Steven Tang, 22, receives several calls a week about stray trolleys. He also has to go out to retrieve them.
At least three residents in the area admitted to wheeling trolleys back home.
Retiree Sim Swee Leng, 70, said: 'My wife and I have too many groceries to carry, so we use the trolley. Sometimes we chain it to the railing outside our house ...and return it when we are free.'
But Mr Teo Thian Chua, 73, who was pushing his trolley back to the store, said he or his family members always return their trolley immediately: 'I am only borrowing it and will definitely return it.'
Mr Tang can see the customer's point of view: 'Sometimes we see an auntie with a trolley full of stuff, and we just cannot bear to ask her to return the trolley and carry everything by hand.
'So we just close one eye, and hopefully they return it.'
[email protected] [email protected]
