2 men allegedly stole 140 shopping carts from a NJ store, leading to a shortage

Two men arrested in Newark are being called career criminals, but police say they aren't stealing things like cars or jewelry.

They were allegedly swiping shopping carts.

On any given day, there typically used to about 400-500 shopping carts available at the ShopRite supermarket in Rochelle Park. But starting in March and continuing in April, the number of carts available was noticeably smaller.

"I think the store manager was the first to notice we we’re running low on carts here," said Robert Allen, the real estate manager for ShopRite. "We have a good security team and started looking at the video, and noticed a red van coming and going. They were even dressed like cart guys with the lime yellow shirts and everything."

But they were not cart guys. Police arrested 77-year-old Alfredo Rodriguez and 54-year-old Hector Cortes, calling them the "Shopping Cart Bandits." The pair was busted in the parking lot after the store's security started their own investigation and handed cops security video on April 8.

"We’re pulling out the paperwork the next day, on Tuesday, and we get a phone call around noon and they were like 'They’re here!'" said Rochelle Park Det. Nick Mercoun. "My partner and I ran out there, we blocked the guys in. They were in a corner of the parking lot, and lo and behold, they gave us consent to search their vehicle and there were five shopping carts in there."

Rodriguez and Cortes allegedly had been at it for two weeks, taking at least 140 carts. So why go through all the work to take something like a shopping cart?

Maybe because they sell for about $200 apiece, wholesale.

"One-hundred forty carts, it was about $28,000 worth of shopping carts," said Mercoun. "We believe they’re selling them to smaller bodegas or scrapping them. But they had proceeds on them, they’re making cash. Who knew? Not me."

But it apparently is more common than most would believe. The Food Marketing Institute estimates two million shopping carts are stolen each year. Sometimes it's done as a matter of convenience, but not always.

"We typically see people, they’ll take a shopping cart home if they live nearby. That’s understandable," Mercoun said. "But to see people unloading them and putting them in their cars is pretty bizarre."

One of the suspects already had an outstanding warrant out for his arrest — for again stealing shopping carts.

"The crazy thing about it was...the 77-year-old [Rodriguez] was the one lugging them into the van. I was surprised to see a guy 77 years old who could hardly walk, taking a shopping cart and lifting it up into the back of a van," said Mercoun.

Both suspects are looking at a different kind of metal these days: They are behind bars at the Bergen County jail. Attorney information for Rodriguez and Cortes was not immediately available.