Mayor Lazybones? ‘Cart Narcs’ busts East Bay politician over unreturned shopping cart

Order by phone! Mayor… Lazybones preside?

The popular YouTube channel “Cart Narcs,” which has a following for catching so-called “lazybones” shoppers who don’t return their shopping carts to cart corrals, had Newark Mayor Michael Hannon on its radar last year, when he was a city councilman.

In [a video uploaded on July 26, 2022],(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BAPsH_SxDA), “Cart Narcs” host Sebastian Davis confronts Hannon in the FoodMaxx parking lot on Cedar Boulevard in Newark about an unreturned shopping cart. The encounter escalates into a heated exchange, with Hannon dropping a few choice words.

The video, titled “At The Car Wash,” has received over 280,000 views and shows Hannon becoming increasingly agitated as he objects to Davis’ confrontational tactic of repeatedly sticking flimsy, shopping-cart shaped shame magnets to Hannon’s car.

“Don’t throw s*** on my car when I just got it cleaned,” Hannon says repeatedly as he gets out of his car and throws the magnets into the parking lot, threatening to call the cops.

Davis, who is known for promoting the issue in videos for his half-million subscribers, asks Hannon if he will return his shopping cart the next time he goes shopping and continues to place magnets on Hannon’s car.

“Every time you do, I’m going to toss it off,” Hannon says. “So you can chase them all over the parking lot, you f***ing litterbug.”

“You’re the one who’s littering!” Davis fires back. “You’re gaslighting me, sir.”

The encounter concludes with Hannon driving away and onlookers wondering what they just witnessed.

Davis, a Los Angeles-based audio/video professional, stated in an interview that the purpose of his show is genuine, if unconventional. There are systems in place to practice public etiquette, such as cleaning up after your pet, cleaning up after yourself at the gym, or returning a shopping cart that could ding someone else’s car, but some people do not follow the rules. So he goes outside and speaks to them.

Davis stated that he had never met Hannon and had no idea he was a politician when he filmed the video. He also stated that there were no threats of violence made during the encounter, which he described as routine, having had similar interactions “thousands of times.”

According to Davis, the “Cart Narcs” channel has become an unintentional exploration of how some people raise their defenses or protect their egos when asked to do something. Unpleasant encounters over misplaced shopping carts, he believes, may represent a deeper, inner turmoil in someone’s personal life.

It all comes down to “humility,” he said, adding that apologizing is a sign of strength, not weakness.

“You can take that message and apply it to many different areas of your life,” Davis said.

In an interview, Hannon stated that he had not seen the video of the altercation. He did, however, recall the encounter and expressed his displeasure with the “aggressive” manner in which he was approached by a stranger. Hannon suggested that if a store employee had asked him to return a cart, he might have responded differently. Hannon stated that he threw the magnets placed on his car in an attempt to get Davis away from him because he did not want the confrontation to become physical.

The mayor, who was a council member at the time of the confrontation, stated that he was unaware he was being filmed and that he would have chosen his words differently if he had known.

Regardless, Hannon stated that he normally returns shopping carts, but that there is no legal obligation to do so.

“It’s common courtesy to do so,” the politician explained.

Nonetheless, the video clearly shows Hannon becoming agitated, and he admits he’s not proud of his language.

“Probably not something I would want to share with the grandkids,” he admitted.