Grandfather fearful after youths use shopping trolleys as a "trolley luge"

  • last year
A grandfather fears being mown down after gangs of school-aged yobs started using a slope outside his home as a terrifying "trolley luge". Norman Adams, 75, says dozens of Tesco shopping carts have been dumped outside the sheltered housing complex where he lives. In a desperate bid to catch the culprits, the pensioner installed a CCTV camera on his bungalow which captured groups of kids 'joy-riding' in stolen trolleys. The retired engineer, who has four grown-up children and five grandchildren, fears it is only a matter of time before an elderly person is "mown down". He is now demanding Tesco improves security at the store at Mere Way in Northampton to stop kids nicking their trolleys. He said: "We seem to get masses of trolleys being brought down, mainly by the kids. “We live at the bottom of a slope with the Tesco at the top, right next to a school with 1,000 pupils. “Some of the kids use the slope as a sort of trolley luge. I was young once and I understand the temptation but it’s getting out of hand now. "If you get three, four or five of them [bunched together] they block the path. “I live in sheltered housing so there are a lot of people around here who have got mobility scooters who get trapped in and can't move. "It's only a matter of time before someone gets mown down by one of these trolleys. They don't have brakes and they can pick up speed. "To me, it's an accident waiting to happen and the issue needs sorting before someone gets hurt. “The trolleys can sometimes sit there for days. I find at least one new one every day. "They are eventually taken away but they usually just get taken up the slope and get ridden down again. “Tesco really need to do something to stop people taking the trolleys off their premises. "I live with someone with OCD so it really stresses them. It doesn't only affect us, either." Norman believes children find the already abandoned trolleys in the area and then start pushing each other down a hill outside his home in them.

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