SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KGO) — Dozens of apparent shopping carts are stuck in a marsh along the San Francisco Bay. And residents are puzzled as to how they got there.

“It’s crazy! Gross!” said Kim Avalos, who frequents the trail. “What is that?!”

The San Francisco Bay Trail in South San Francisco curves around the mouth of the Colma Creek marsh. It’s a popular walking and running trail, but local residents are starting to notice something in the water.

“Now that I’m looking at… wow…there’s actually so many shopping carts out here,” said Avalos. “There’s an extreme amount.”

Avalos works for a nearby garbage company. She says she walks the trail every day but has never seen anything like this.

“It’s actually kind of insane to think about how they even got there,” Avalos said.

It’s the same story for others who frequent the trail. At first glance, mistaking the debris for rocks until they actually stare at it.

“It kind of blends in,” said Hondres when we approached him on the trail. “I’ve never seen grocery carts out in the Bay like this… I don’t know, it’s kind of weird.”

“Have you noticed it before?” 7 On Your Side’s Stephanie Sierra asked another passer-by.

“Uh… no. This is kind of new,” he said. “Someone is being very stupid… I’ve seen them over the years. I don’t remember there being this many. There’s quite a few.”

Many people who frequent the trail said when it’s high tide it’s hard to notice anything.

“It does look like shopping carts, do you know if that’s what it is?”

It’s hard to say for sure. But at low tide, it certainly looks that way.

“It does look like shopping carts, amongst other things,” Save the Bay representative Josh Quigley said.

And there’s not just one or two, but there’s what appears to be dozens of them spanning the Colma Creek marsh adjacent to the bay.

“Have you ever seen this many shopping carts along the bay?” Stephanie Sierra asked.

“I have not, no,” Quigley said. “This is certainly the greater concentration that I’ve ever seen in one place.”

Quigley is the Senior Policy Manager for Save the Bay, an environmental nonprofit founded in 1961 to stop excessive filling of the San Francisco Bay.

“I think it’s really unfortunate… the bay is treated not as the jewel and resource that it should be, but as a dumping ground,” Quigley said.

So, where is it all coming from? That seems to be up for debate.

“It could be a big prank, if anything, but at this rate I have no idea,” said Alvin Lau, who visits the trail regularly.

“There’s often homeless people in the mobile RV vehicles,” said another. “There’s always a lot of trash here, not going to lie.”

“I don’t know, maybe Costco. They are our neighbors,” Kim Avalos said. “Could be because they do look bigger.”

A Costco Business Center is about a mile from Colma Marsh. 7 On Your Side reached out to Costco’s corporate office, and the South San Francisco Costco General Manager said: “We walk and clean the trail multiple times a week, in addition to checking for any carts that might end up in the bay.”

The goal now is to clean it out — and ensure it stays that way.

“Stop being dumb. There’s only one planet we got, so take care of it,” said Lau.

“It hurts me as an animal lover to see all these shopping carts in their place of habitat,” Avalos said.

“Save the Bay” says overall pollution is decreasing across the bay shoreline, but there are instances–like this one–where smaller pockets need to be addressed.

Locally, there are regulations in place to prevent this type of pollution.

7 On Your Side contacted the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to further investigate and clean up the area.

Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.

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Nestled in Denver’s oldest historic district is a piece of Americana dating back decades. A new book shares the star-studded history of Rockmount Ranch Wear and its influence on fashion icons.

Current owner Steve Weil grew up inside Rockmount Ranch Wear. Long days in a warehouse and store aren’t unusual for a member of the Weil family, considering his grandfather kept at it until he was 107.

“I have been here pretty much since I was a little kid,” said Weil.

Customer watching at Rockmount Ranch Wear in LoDo is, at times, like a night at the Grammys. Music stars abound. Film stars, too. And regular customers looking for a piece of Americana.

Weil says Rockmount has weathered booms and busts over its eighty years of business.

“Everything was about responding to a changing market. That’s the cycle of business, right?” said Weil, who serves as the company’s President and chief creative officer.

His latest creative effort is a third book, “Rockmount Legends: Celebrities in Classic American Fashion.” The book is a compilation of memories of rock stars like David Bowie, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan, who have branded their own look with Rockmount clothing. There are stories and back-and-forth communications, as well as style notes and sightings of Rockmount on film sets and among stars.

Weil first noticed a shirt on Elvis Presley in the movie “Love Me Tender.”

“I looked, and I looked, and suddenly I remembered I’d seen a shirt exactly like that that my father had in the 50s,” he recalled.

Weil re-introduced the shirt, and it was a sellout.

The company was started soon after World War II by “Papa Jack,” who cut out a niche as unique as the sawtooth pockets he popularized. The company was the first to put snaps on shirts. His grandfather figured it would keep men on horseback from getting snagged. His shirts also featured yokes and wider cuffs, a departure from the norm at the time.

“My grandfather and his advertising, ‘Designed in the West by Westerners.’ Distinctive,” Steve Weil summarized.

Over the years, more and more stars looking for western wear eventually came into the store on Wazee Street in LoDo.

“People who write music or movies, I think they’re visionaries. And I think they appreciate that in their clothing, and I think we’ve, that’s what we do,” said Weil.

“Rockmount Legends” follows two other books, “Ask Papa Jack: Wisdom of the World’s Oldest CEO,” which is filled with stories and sayings from Papa Jack, who worked at the store until his passing, and “Western Shirts: A Classic American Fashion,” which puts in print the history of the development of western wear.

“I’m inspired by my grandfather. He could mesmerize you with his stories,” said Weil.

One passage features letters exchanged between Papa Jack and Ronald Reagan. Reagan was decrying the U.S.’s shift toward a service economy.

“And my grandfather writes him and says, ‘Servicing is when they take the mare to the stud,’” laughs Weil.

Weil’s father was also an innovator, taking the company nationwide. Weil says he could tell a story of his own.

Weil says, one Saturday at the warehouse, before there was a store, “There’s a guy peering in the window like this, and he sees my father pull up. Opened the door and he says, ‘Bloody hell, you’re never open when I’m here.’ And it’s a guy with an English accent. And my father’s a nice guy, he says, ‘come on in.’”

Later that day, there was a family get-together, and Steve’s father told him the story.

Weil recalled, “My father says, ‘An English rock star came in and I took care of him,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, right. Who was it?’”

It took his father a few moments to remember, then he spat out, “David Bowie,” mispronouncing the name. Steve was still skeptical until Monday.

“And then the phone rings, and it’s David Bowie’s secretary. He wants a duplicate of the same order sent to Madison Square Garden overnight,” he laughed.

Weil says they try to respect the stars’ space, adding that there are the friendly ones and the more remote ones.

“Robert Plant was really fun,” explained Weil.

When he arrived in the store, Steve says he received a call from one of the workers. He could hear Led Zeppelin’s Plant in the background, crowing about what he’d found.

“I walk in and here’s this guy like, just beaming. He’s having fun,” Weil shared.

The staff ended up getting invited to three nights of shows by Plant and his band at the Fillmore, and Steve went out to breakfast with Plant.

Eric Clapton’s look seems well-branded by Rockmount. Weil says Clapton has been a regular customer over the years. He sent a picture of himself in a Rockmount shirt at one point.

“Can I use that you know in some of our material?” he recalled asking Clapton. “He says, ‘Yeah, what’s in it for me? I said how about a ten percent discount?”

One time, Clapton emailed that he needed shirts for a Cream reunion in London in two days.

“I said, ‘Well, it takes a week from Denver. But I know where you can have a shirt on Thursday, and that’s if I hand deliver one,” he explained.

And so he did. Weil and a friend, capable of making last-minute travel decisions, flew over, but then doubt set in.

“What if this is bogus?” Weil thought.

He had Clapton’s phone number but was too worried about the cost of calling from his cell phone, so he sought out a British phone booth and rang him. Turned out, it was legitimate, and they made the delivery at the Royal Albert Hall. They went to dinner with Clapton as well.

The book is another way to share the memories that go with the images and the stories about people who have found an image along with the clothing.

Weil says sales have changed over the years, with the web now a big component. But personal engagement is still a big part of the Rockmount experience.

“It’s kind of a rare art. And I don’t know, I hope with the internet we don’t lose that kind of stuff,” said Weil. 

SEATTLE — Seattle has one FIFA World Cup match in the books, and officials say the city’s security and logistics plan is holding up as Seattle prepares for what could be its busiest game of the tournament.

“I’m excited to say things are going very smoothly at the moment,” said Ken Neafcy, operations section chief for the FIFA World Cup Seattle Unified Command. The command post is based at the Seattle Office of Emergency Management, a few blocks from Seattle Stadium.

The unified command is working with 55 agencies and about 110 personnel, overseeing logistics, planning, and coordination among fire, police, and other emergency response partners.

“So far, there have been no significant issues that have caused us to make major adjustments to our plans,” Neafcy said. “One of the things we’ll do over the next few days is look back at activity and determine whether there are strategic adjustments we need to make before Friday’s game between Team USA and Australia.”

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That match is expected to be the busiest of Seattle’s six World Cup games. Neafcy said the Mariners will also be playing at home Friday night, three cruise ships will be docked on the Seattle waterfront, and multiple Juneteenth celebrations are planned throughout the city. A large contingent of Australian fans is also expected.

The first World Cup match was largely uneventful from a public safety standpoint, with fans navigating street closures and entering the stadium without major problems. Neafcy said there were no significant security incidents, although authorities detected and intercepted a small number of unauthorized drones.

He said the FBI, Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office used drone-detection technology around the stadium and Seattle Center. Authorities are enforcing temporary flight restrictions in host cities to protect airspace during the tournament.

Seattle learned four years ago that it would host World Cup matches. Planning among city, county, state, and federal agencies has been underway for the past two and a half years.

Thousands of fans converged on Lumen Field, temporarily renamed Seattle Stadium, for Monday’s match between Belgium and Egypt. Visitors encountered a visible law enforcement presence, including Seattle police officers stationed outside the stadium’s fan zone and along nearby streets, many serving as guides for visitors. Washington State Patrol troopers and Seattle Fire Department personnel were also deployed throughout the area.

The King County Sheriff’s Office monitored activity from the air, including patrol flights around the stadium. The agency is also using a second helicopter on loan from Spokane County. Officials monitored nearby waterways as part of the broader security footprint.

“There were additional security forces. You could definitely tell Seattle was prepared,” said fan John Diaz as he headed to Monday’s match. Diaz said he noticed the police presence on Sound Transit light rail and called it “the safest I’ve ever felt.”

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Julius Sali, who traveled from South Africa, said he felt comfortable moving around the city.

“I was able to walk around at night from the bar. I did feel safe here,” Sali said.

“The resources have been put in place to ensure everyone has been checked and that they’re going to a safe space,” said Sanjay Murthy, who traveled from Canada with his family. “I would call that a necessary inconvenience.”

“I really appreciate the first responders, the firefighters and police officers trying to ensure our safety,” said Murthy’s wife, Vandana Parnandi. “That makes me feel safer.”

Other security measures include a ban on parking at the stadium and the temporary activation of CCTV cameras in the stadium district after Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson reversed an earlier policy that would have kept them offline because of privacy concerns. The change applies only during World Cup events and followed a review of security threats by law enforcement.

“We do have those cameras on and managed by SPD,” Neafcy said. “So far, everything has been very quiet.”

For the Murthy children, the focus was less on security and more on the experience.

“I think it’s a little bit of a precaution, but it’s just fun to be part of the whole vibe of everybody being around,” said 13-year-old Sahana Murthy.

Her younger brother, Vivek, a soccer player, had advice for the athletes taking the field.

“My advice: Calm down, move the ball around, don’t force it to the net and capitalize on your chances,” he said.

With one match complete and five remaining, Diaz said the atmosphere has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I see a lot of people enjoying themselves,” Diaz said. “It’s been great so far.”