DOS Police Seize Produce from UES Fruit and Vegetable Cart
The Department of Sanitation says the cart had been “abandoned,” adding that the department donated the confiscated food “deemed safe to eat” to a local food pantry. But the “abandoned” stand was operating days later when OT paid a visit.
| 01 Nov 2024 | 11:18
The cart in question is located on 86th and 2nd Ave. outside of a CVS drug store. (
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The cart was operating seemingly normally less than a week after The Department of Sanitation confiscated the produce on Oct. 20. (
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The Department of Sanitation Police confiscated produce and other items from a fruit-and-vegetable cart on E. 86th St. and 2nd Ave. on Saturday, Oct. 19.
“Sanitation Police generally issues summonses for street vending violations. We do not arrest vendors for these violations, and we do not confiscate material from vendors who are present and show identification,” wrote Vincent Gragnani, the Press Secretary of the NYC Department of Sanitation, in a statement. “We confiscated carts and material that had been abandoned.”
Gragnani said that all confiscated produce that was safe to consume was donated to a local food pantry, which is the protocol of the department in other situations like this. He added that “The vendor setups have been vouchered and can be claimed by the owners through the Department of Sanitation.”
One of the cart’s workers—who, it is worth noting, was not present during the reported confiscations, and who spoke with the help of a translator—reported that something similar happened to a woman selling nuts across the street.
While the worker did not say explicitly whether the worker scheduled for Saturday had actually abandoned the food, as Sanitation stated was the case, he did accurately (as confirmed by an email from the department) report that it was specifically police from the Department of Sanitation who came and took the material.
“The Department of Sanitation did not create street vending laws nor set the fines,” wrote Gragnani. “We enforce these laws, with a focus on situations where vending has created dirty conditions, safety issues, items being left out overnight, and setups that block curbs, subway entrances, bus stops, sidewalks or store entrances.”
Just under a week later, the cart appeared to be operating as usual, with customers purchasing fruits and vegetables as though nothing happened.
The NYPD said it was not involved in the situation.
“Our enforcement work is rooted in the belief that all New Yorkers, across every neighborhood, in every borough, deserve clean, safe sidewalks,” Gragnani wrote. “While we take a warnings-first approach—often posting dozens of warning signs throughout an area before taking any enforcement actions—we also engage in robust enforcement to protect cleanliness and quality of life.”