A Stray Shopping Cart Story

Every now and then people send me emails about the Stray Shopping Cart Project, most are questions about identification or stories about finding strays (they usually send pictures too). Today I received my new favorite Stray Cart email from one Veronica Kavass:

Dear Julian,

You don't know me but here is a little story:

Yesterday, I stopped by the Park Slope Community Bookshop to pick up a copy of the Stray Shopping Carts book. I'd ordered it a while ago, right when the spider show had opened (which was my introduction to your work) but hadn't gotten around to picking it up until yesterday after some strenuous yoga. Later in the night, I was dragging my feet down 10th in Chelsea and a boisterous group rounded the corner and nearly ran into us with their shopping cart. A tipsy blond was pushing it and parked it into a phone booth. My friend was a bit entertained by this and I pulled the shopping cart book out of my bag to show it to her. She said "show it to them" and pointed at the drunks who deserted their cart. I said "hey, come here" and they hovered around me and looked at the book. The blond squealed with joy and posed for a picture I took of her. The others tried to stuff birthday cupcakes in our our faces. The blond woman asked: "Am I going to be in some sort of playboy shopping cart book now?" And all her friends thought I was the author of the book despite my attempts to correct them. A brief and joyous bonding session--and the cart was still left behind! Here are some bad pictures...