Patent ID: 7401795

Claim:
A brake assembly for a shopping cart having a basket, a pair of rear legs, a pair of ground engaging rear wheels, a rearwardly disposed handle bar, and a lower shelf or frame, said brake assembly comprising: (a) an elongated shaft; (b) a pair of pivot means for pivotally attaching said elongated shaft to each rear leg in proximity to the pair of rear wheels; (c) a pair of rear wheel engaging means each secured to said elongated shaft for frictionally engaging a respective rear wheel; (d) an actuating lever having a first end thereof attached to one end of said elongated shaft and having a free second end thereof positioned along one side of such basket and manually graspable and movable thereabout between a first position wherein said each rear wheel engaging means is spaced from the respective rear wheel and a second position wherein said each rear wheel engaging means frictionally engages the respective rear wheel for preventing rotation thereof and for preventing movement of the shopping cart; (e) a detent and guide means which is secured to such one side of such basket of the shopping cart in proximity to the rearwardly disposed handle bar for guiding movement of said second end of said actuating lever between said first and said second position and for positively retaining said actuating lever in said second position; and (f) a coupling means for coupling said second end of said actuating lever to said detent and guide means.