Random Lady at the Sbucks

[toolbert]

Last night I was out with friend getting some caffinated treats and helping him work on a cover letter at the local Sbucks (well, one of the 3 local ones >.>). We finish up and go outside and start talking next to my car about random things when all of a sudden a car pulls up right next to mine. Now, that's not normally a bad thing, but the space she park's in isn't a space. It's a spot for wheelchairs to move to the only handicapped spot in this small lot. This old lady gets out of the car, stares at us and asks us if they're open. Both my friend and I just kinda nod yeah and then she says:

SC: I know I parked wrong, but it's not like there's going to be any chair people that really need this spot anyway.

Our jaws dropped. The nerve of some people. My coffee is so much more important than the handicapped people who need to use this space to get back into their car!

[ditchdj]

Of course. We dont need no stinkin' laws. Of course unless someone like her gets done wrong.

[Erin]

Where I live in Nebraska, you can take a short class and volunteer to write tickets for people who park illegally in the handicapped spots. I asked for the info packet, but never took the class.

There have been several times that I've wished I'd gone thru with the class so that I could just drive around the shopping centers by my house and write tickets or have people towed.

My mom has bad knees, (she's had her kneecaps replaced, still has problems) and so we have a handicapped sticker on my car for her. There have been times we've come out of a store with my mom in a wheelchair and not been able to get her to the passenger side of my car because some asshat has parked in the wheelchair access space and parked so close to my door that I wonder how he was able to open his car door to get out of his own car.

Once, I decided to just try to push my mom as close as I could get her to the car so she could stand up and use the side of the cars to support herself to get in my car. It's just too bad that I repeatedly "accidentally" scraped the side of the guy's car with my mom's wheelchair.

[Becks]

Where I live in Nebraska, you can take a short class and volunteer to write tickets for people who park illegally in the handicapped spots.

Ooooh, I wonder if NJ and WI has classes like that?

[ladodger34]

I used to get pissed at that stuff too. My grandma had a handicap placard for a long time because of bad hips. She walked plenty fine after her replacement (back in '86) but the doctor made sure she had a lifetime placard because he knew that it would go out again. Prior to her second surgery last May, the hip had been bugging her for quite some time and she really needed the placard when she was out.

It always bugged me to think that because some able bodied person was too lazy to walk an extra hundred yards (and I'm being generous, it's usually about 100 feet) that my grandma would have to suffer. There were days that she could hardly walk but still had to get groceries and stuff (and she was too proud to call us for help).

Incidentally, why is that people have an overwhelming urge to park as close to the store as possible? What, the extra minute walking is going to cost them a ton of time?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, when I was towing, those were the I always tried to have towed first.

I mean, really. How self-important and clueless can you get?

How about the NIMRODS that put their carts into the handicapped spot instead of the cart corral (which is frequently 3 steps away). This is not a fluke. I see this everywhere. What is UP with that? What, your average wheelchair bound person doesn't mind moving 15 carts so they can park????

And it always kills me there's more than one cart, too. What, one idiot does it so the next two dozen people see that and decide it's okay to do, too?

Gaaaah. F&%king lemmings.

[Erin]

Ooooh, I wonder if NJ and WI has classes like that?

You should check and see... I had to go look it up again for the city of Omaha to see what they call their program. The program is sponsored by the Omaha Police Dept and it's called The Volunteer Handicap Parking Enforcement Patrol. Maybe if you Google the police department for the town you live in, they might have one of those programs?

I might check with the Omaha PD again about their program...sounds like fun...writing $144+ tickets to people who are too lazy and stupid to park 20 or 30 feet further.

[PuckishOne]

Whenever I see someone pull into a marked handicap-parking spot, I want to stand there, a look of concern on my face, and once they get out of the car I want to say, "Oh, I see...you're mentally handicapped. You can't read the sign." And then just walk away....

Oh, if only...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

A friend and I actually did leave a sign that said "We realize stupidity is a handicap, but you CAN walk." on this idiot's trans am. He was this huge burly neckless guy who couldn't put his arms all the way down.

I saw someone leave a cart in the handicapped spot once at Publix, and made a big, loud deal of retrieving it, and pushing it past the person, all the while bitching and moaning, LOUDLY, about how stupid some people are, leaving carts in the handicapped spot.

I seriously doubt they even made the connection.

[Erin]

A friend and I actually did leave a sign that said "We realize stupidity is a handicap, but you CAN walk." on this idiot's trans am. He was this huge burly neckless guy who couldn't put his arms all the way down.

did this guy have the placard? Some people who are handicapped and have the placard look "normal" and can walk (like my mom) but just very short distances before they have to stop and rest. (like if they have heart problems)

I only say anything to someone parking in the handicapped spots, if they dont have the placards...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, in all honesty, I don't know. I did not see one on his rear view mirror. I hope not, because then WE would have been the jerks.

We just saw a very capable-looking young guy who looked like he worked out in the weight room on a real regular basis park, get out, and walk pretty steadily toward the door.

[Erin]

Sounds like you were right...

[Gurndigarn]

SC: I know I parked wrong, but it's not like there's going to be any chair people that really need this spot anyway.

Cell phones are your friends. Just remember, call the regular police line, not 911.

[One-Fang]

We just saw a very capable-looking young guy who looked like he worked out in the weight room on a real regular basis park, get out, and walk pretty steadily toward the door.

What you didn't see was him coming back out two minutes later, assisting his elderly and infirm grandmother by carrying her shopping bags for her.


I'm all "yay go" on punishing the freaking nitwits, but Erin's right, only do it if there's no placard. Sometimes the car is legit, the reason is legit, but the one person you see moving doesn't "appear" to need it.

[Mixed Bag]

you can take a short class and volunteer to write tickets

Oooh, can we also do it for people who block traffic making illegal left turns and who throw cigarettes out the window and who blast their stereos, and for construction trucks that spew sand onto the windshields behind them?