A pile of hypodermic needles, gloves and broken car parts greeted Kelli Reid when she opened Carter's Pet Mart one recent Saturday morning at 7 o'clock. Surveillance cameras had captured the culprit hours earlier: a street sweeper that rolled into the College Square parking lot just south of San Joaquin Delta College, dumped its contents, and drove off.
Reid, the store's manager, identified the vehicle as a private street sweeper and said she ended up cleaning the mess herself, according to a report from CBS Sacramento. She said she worried the dumping had happened before in Stockton, and she believes the driver had been doing this for a while. The police department received a report about the incident, the station notes.
Reid isn't the only business owner dealing with unwanted deliveries. Greg Macklem, owner of Daily Deal Warehouse roughly 10 minutes from Carter's Pet Mart, says a street sweeper dumped a mattress in his parking lot about four months before the incident at Reid's store. Per the same report, the operator reportedly dragged the mattress in with a rope and untied it with his teeth before leaving it behind.
Employees Suspect a Common Culprit
Employees at both businesses believe the same company is responsible for both incidents, though that connection has not been independently confirmed. Macklem said the dumping was disappointing, especially coming during the holiday season amid a difficult economy, the station's report states. Reid, for her part, said keeping her customers and employees safe matters most to her.
Both business owners want the driver and the company held responsible, or at least some other solution found, according to the same account. The city of Stockton told the station the vehicle did not look familiar and that it was unaware of the situation, and city officials said they had asked the Public Works Department to investigate the reports.
What Stockton's Code Says About Illegal Dumping
Stockton's municipal code defines illegal dumping broadly, covering the depositing, dropping, placing or throwing of any waste matter onto public or private property not legally designated for disposal, according to the city's code posted on ecode360.com. Under that chapter, illegal dumping is classified as an infraction and can also carry additional administrative or civil penalties.
The code sets a $1,000 fine for a first violation and $2,000 for a second violation within a year, per the same chapter. Notably, the code also allows a vehicle or trailer owner to be held liable if the vehicle was used with the owner's express or implied permission, irrespective of whether the owner knew or should have known how it would be used, the code states.
County Data Shows Complaints Falling, Trash Volume Steady
The street sweeper incidents land amid a broader countywide push against illegal dumping. San Joaquin County formed its Illegal Dumping Task Force in 2022 and built out an Education, Enforcement and Eradication plan, according to Stocktonia. The county also relies on 10 to 16 Flock surveillance cameras to monitor areas prone to illegal waste disposal, the outlet reports.
Countywide complaints have dropped sharply: the county logged 1,020 illegal-dumping complaints in fiscal year 2023–2024, 775 the following year, and 612 last fiscal year, a 40% decrease over the three-year span, Stocktonia's reporting shows. Discarded tires reported countywide have fallen by half since the Three E's program began, while dumped appliances like refrigerators and stoves have dipped by more than a third.
Still, the decline in complaints hasn't translated into less trash on the ground. The overall volume of illegally dumped waste actually picked up by crews is described as virtually unchanged from the program's first year, according to the same report. Stocktonia also notes that the county's first-offense fine for illegal dumping is $100, and that many of those citations, issued much like traffic tickets, have gone unpaid.
