Call to order! Mayor … Lazybones presiding?
The popular YouTube channel “Cart Narcs” — which has amassed a following for busting so-called “lazybones” shoppers who don’t return their shopping carts to cart corrals — caught Newark Mayor Michael Hannon in its sights last year, when he was a city councilman.
In a video posted July 26, 2022, “Cart Narcs” host Sebastian Davis confronts Hannon over an unreturned shopping cart at the FoodMaxx parking lot on Cedar Boulevard in Newark. The encounter leads to a testy back-and-forth, with Hannon dropping a few choice words.
The video — which is titled “At The Car Wash” and has logged more than 280,000 views — shows Hannon growing increasingly heated, objecting to Davis’ confrontational tactic of repeatedly sticking flimsy, shopping-cart shaped magnets of shame 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 tosses the magnets in the parking lot, threatening to call the police.
Davis — known for pushing the issue in videos posted for his half-million subscribers — asks Hannon if he’ll return his shopping cart the next time he shops 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 shoots back. “You’re gaslighting me, sir.”
The encounter ends with Hannon driving off and onlookers questioning what they just saw.
For Davis, a Los Angeles-based audio/video professional, the purpose of his show is genuine, if unconventional, he said in an interview. 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 another person’s car — but some people don’t follow the rules. So, he goes out and talks to them.
Davis said he’d never met Hannon, and was not aware he was a politician when he shot the video. He also said no threats of violence were made during the encounter, which he described as routine, having had similar interactions “thousands of times.”
The “Cart Narcs” channel has become an inadvertent exploration of how some people raise their defenses or protect their egos when asked to do something, Davis said. Unsavory confrontations over misplaced shopping carts, he said, may symbolize a deeper, inner turmoil in someone’s personal life.
It comes down to “humility,” he said, adding that apologizing is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.
“You can take that message and apply it to many areas of your life,” Davis said.
Hannon said in an interview that he hadn’t seen the video of the confrontation. But he said he remembered the encounter, adding that he objected to the “aggressive” manner in which he was approached by a stranger. Had it been a store employee who asked to return a cart, Hannon suggested he may have responded differently.
Hannon said he threw the magnets that had been placed on his car in an attempt to get Davis away from him because he didn’t want the confrontation to potentially become physical.
The mayor — who was a council member at the time of the confrontation — said he also wasn’t aware he was being filmed, offering that he may have chosen his words differently had he known.
Regardless, Hannon claimed he normally returns shopping carts, but said one is under no legal obligation to return a cart.
“It’s a common courtesy to do so,” the politician said.
Still, the video clearly shows Hannon becoming ruffled, and he admits he’s not proud of the language he used.
“Probably not something I would want to share with the grandkids,” he said.