Trapped Trolleys Transformed

From the ABC:

For a number of years itinerant shopping trolleys have been appearing around the streets of Alice Springs. In river beds, parks, storm water drains and street curbs, the trolleys have become a fixture of the town's landscape.

One man has been leading the fight against rogue shopping trolleys. Mal Crowley appeared on ABC TV's New Inventors with his feral cat trap which was made out of shopping trolleys.

The accompanying video is funny, although it's a pity he has so many trolleys to use as raw material.

Funny because it's true

This from Phil Mir from 4BC:

It's true people. The metal frames in shopping trolley's create a magnetic field that interferes with the part of your brain relating to short term memory.

I have discovered this after much research and observation in a variety of shopping centres. The phenomenon seems to occur immediately after the shopper has loaded their groceries and ceased all physical contact with said trolley. Dazed and confused they are unable to locate or return the trolleys to the allocated trolley bays being forced instead to leave the trolley abandoned in the carpark.
Others have become so disorientated that they wander the street in search of a place to leave their metal framed friends. Another disturbing result of this phenomenon is that it completely removes the memory of how difficult it is to steer one of these fully laden beasts.

People who not 5 mins ago were struggling to navigate this chariot of destruction are now totally oblivious to the plight of their fellow shoppers and will aimlessly walk straight towards these trolleys seemingly unable to change direction. Thus forcing the already frazzled shopper to slip a lower back disc trying to manoeuvre themselves around these poor unfortunate souls.

The same thing seems to apply to babystrollers and prams, though as most of these are made of plastic I may need to research further.

So next time you are trying to navigate your weekly grocery load around the streams of people walking mindlessly in a straight line, unable to change direction. Do not get angry .It is not their fault. There is a power involved here which is beyond the realms of normal human understanding.

Hooray For Frankston

At least one council is taking the issue of shopping trolley dumpage seriously.

Frankston Council in Victora has made it part of their bylaws that every supermarket rolley has to be coin or token locked.

It's a fine of 10 penalty units for shops that don't supply the locking trolleys and a fine of 1 penalty unit for anyone who dumps a trolley.

Sorry, the document doesn't make it clear how much a penalty unit is worth.

You can see the documentation here.

Surely it can't be too hard to introduce this bylaw in all councils around the country?