Stockton street sweeper caught on camera dumping debris outside local businesses

Stockton business owners were left confused after surveillance cameras captured a street sweeper dumping its contents in an empty parking lot.

Video reviewed by CBS News Sacramento shows a street sweeper pulling into the College Square parking lot, just south of San Joaquin Delta College. The driver jumps out of the truck, opens the hatch, pulls the garbage out and drives away.

"When I got to work early Saturday morning at 7 o'clock, I saw a huge pile of garbage in our parking lot," Carter's Pet Mart Store Manager Kelli Reid explained.

Kelli Reid, the store manager Carter's Pet Mart, said a huge pile of garbage had appeared over the weekend — but what she saw on their security footage was even more shocking.

"I went and watched our video cameras and found that a private street sweeper had unloaded all of his junk into our parking lot," she said.

Reid ended up having to clean the mess all on her own.

"There were hypodermic needles in there. There were gloves. There were broken car parts," she shared.

Reid said she's worried this is isn't the first time that this has happened in the city. She said that a report has been filed with the police department.

"I think he's been doing it for a while because he's very seemed very comfortable in doing it," Reid said. 

And Reid is not the only one to have reported illicit dumping by a street sweeper. 

Daily Deal Warehouse owner Greg Macklem said the same thing happened four months ago outside of his business, just 10 minutes away from Carter's Pet Mart.

"All of a sudden, this guy just comes in with his mattress for no reason and drops it off in our parking lot," Macklem continued. "It was actually like a street sweeper, commercial property cleaner, that dropped it off, dragged it in with a rope and untied it with his teeth, which was crazy."

Two businesses have now been impacted by what both employees believe was the same company.

Now, they're wanting the driver and company be held responsible, or find another solution.

"It's not easy with the economy going on around the holiday season and now all of a sudden, this is happening to other businesses," Macklem said. "This is really disappointing."

"I love my city of Stockton and I love my job," Reid said. "Keeping our customers and our employees safe, not having to deal with those types of things, is also important to me."

CBS Sacramento also reached out to the city, who said the vehicle does not look familiar and that it was not aware of the situation. The city confirmed it is now asking Public Works to look into the reports.