October 4, 2026 at 8:35 am

Shopper Sent A Cart Into A Parked Car Instead Of Returning It, So The Car Owner Trapped Her Door With Zip Ties

by Benjamin Cottrell

stray shopping cart on the ground

Pexels/Reddit

Some people treat parking lots like a personal obstacle course, and everyone else is just collateral damage.

One man was waiting in his car outside Target, letting his infant daughter nap, when a woman decided the fastest way to clear a spot for herself was to launch a stray shopping cart at full speed straight into his parked car.

She calmly walked into the store without so much as a glance back, clearly assuming nobody saw what happened or cared enough to react. But he did.

Grabbing a few zip ties from his emergency kit, he quietly trapped her cart against her own driver’s side door, then parked a few rows away to enjoy the show.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

Hit our car with a shopping cart?

This is something I did about 1 1/2 years ago.

My wife and I were at a Target, sitting in the car waiting for our daughter to wake up from a nap (a few months old at this point). This lady wants to pull into a spot behind us, a few spots down, but someone left a cart in the spot.

That’s when she did something truly unbelievable.

Instead of walking the extra couple of feet, she full speed pushes the cart towards the cart return that we were parked next to and hits our car. At first, I thought someone backed into us, but realized what she had done.

This guy decides he’s not just going to sit back and let this happen.

She goes into Target, and I decide to get some petty revenge. I grab a few zip ties from my roadside assistance kit, walk the cart over to her driver’s side door, and put 3 zip ties through her door handle and the cart.

Now for the show!

I go back to our car, pull a few rows over, and watch the hilarity ensue. She comes back out after, I’m assuming, a return, and is just perplexed.

Goes back in and comes out with the cart handler, they go back in, and a supervisor/manager comes back out to have a look, and finally some random guy has a knife to cut the zip ties.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t a big deal, but it did feel great to pull off.

We went in, did our shopping, and when we came out, her car was still there.

Was it petty? Sure. Did it delay her an extra 15 minutes? Absolutely. Did she learn her lesson? Probably not.

The drama always seems to start in the parking lot.

What did Reddit have to say?

Some people act like it’s their first day on earth.

Screenshot 2026 09 30 at 11.18.12 AM Shopper Sent A Cart Into A Parked Car Instead Of Returning It, So The Car Owner Trapped Her Door With Zip Ties

Sometimes the universe handles your revenge for you.

Screenshot 2026 09 30 at 11.19.25 AM Shopper Sent A Cart Into A Parked Car Instead Of Returning It, So The Car Owner Trapped Her Door With Zip Ties

How people handle the small niceties in society says a lot about their personality.

Screenshot 2026 09 30 at 11.20.25 AM Shopper Sent A Cart Into A Parked Car Instead Of Returning It, So The Car Owner Trapped Her Door With Zip Ties

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.

This user fantasizes about making it a full-time job.

Screenshot 2026 09 30 at 11.21.25 AM Shopper Sent A Cart Into A Parked Car Instead Of Returning It, So The Car Owner Trapped Her Door With Zip Ties

Launching a cart full speed at a stranger’s car and just walking away takes a special kind of nerve, the kind that usually assumes there won’t be consequences. Because for these kinds of people, there usually aren’t.

But this Karen finally met her match.

This revenge was just the right amount of petty.

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Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.