Handicapped parking woes

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Ok, I was driving a friends car the other day to make a quick run to the store and he has a handicapped parking tag taped to his windscreen (passenger side and on it's side so as to not block field of view). As I'm not handicapped, I take his car and park it in the first space I can find...about three spaces from the far side of the parking aisle.

Almost as far away from the store as you can get and still be in their parking lot. Too much farther and I'd have been in the parking lot for Checkers.

A person sees me with my two good legs and no visible sign of disability and starts reading me the riot act. I tell him to piss off and continue into the store.

10 minutes later and I'm walking back to the car and there is the person still there and now he has one of the County cops there.

Person rants and raves

Cop asks me about the tag

I explain that it's not my car, I'm only borrowing it and since the tag is taped to the window I wasn't about to attempt to remove it. I figured that as long as I didn't park in a handicapped spot, there wouldn't be any problems.

The officer informs the person that there is no law against a non-disabled person driving a car marked disabled and parking in a non-disabled spot and sends me on my way.

Cop drives off, I load the car and drive off, and person is standing there ranting and raving at me...largely ignored.

M

[Primer]

OMGWTFBBQ!!! You had a tag and did NOT park in a handicap spot??? What is the world coming to???

Obviously that dillweed had nothing better to do than worry about other people.

[Geek King]

Wow, the stupidity of this one is actually breathtaking. I would have a hard time not telling that jerk what I thought of him wasting the cop's time in very loud tones.

[marasbaras]

You are a better person that me.

I would've let the person have it (verbally) after the cop left.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

You are a better person that me.

I would've let the person have it (verbally) after the cop left.

Just not worth it. The more I yelled, the more the person would have yelled back. IF the cop quoting the law couldn't persuade him...there would be nothing in the universe that would have done it.

The only thing to do is to simply leave and let him to rant, rave and foam at the mouth impotently at me as I'm driving off.

M

[Becks]

That guy has serious issues.

[Bradester]

The stupid, it burns us!

Did the person think that you might possibly, at some point, use the sticker to park in an actual handicapped spot? That's the only explanation I can think of that would lend his argument any semblance of sense.

And I'm really surprised the cop was even dispatched to the scene.

He sounds like the sort of person who would have yelled and screamed even if you WERE disabled and DID park in a handicapped spot, just because you don't APPEAR disabled. I've seen it too many times. There are many disabilities that don't necessarily manifest themselves physically- I know people with severe fibromyalgia or nerve disorders who look perfectly 'normal' yet can't walk more than a few feet at a time without becoming exhausted.

Sorry to rant, but when ignorance turns into nastiness it just boils my blood.

You handled the situation much more calmly than I would have.

[tropicsgoddess]

You really handled the situation well and proved that you were the bigger man. As for the other guy, moron with a capital M.

[AdminAssistant]

There are many disabilities that don't necessarily manifest themselves physically- I know people with severe fibromyalgia or nerve disorders who look perfectly 'normal' yet can't walk more than a few feet at a time without becoming exhausted.

Mom was able to get a tag when she was going through chemo. She would get physically exhausted easily, not to mention that her white blood cell count regularly bottomed out and her immune system was practically non-existant (she had to really limit how much time she spent outside or in any public setting.)

As far as I know, she was never harrassed too much about it.

[Akasa]

I've had that happen to me. My ex husband was confined to a wheelchair. One time I took his van to the store and had someone cuss me out yell, scream, foam at the mouth for "taking my spot" when I had handicapped tags.

[Apathy]

What a douchebag. That guy seriously needs to get a life. It must be hard going through life angry at everything all the time.
Maybe he could, I don't know, mind his own f'ing business?

[Gerrinson]

Hmmm...I wonder if it was my co-irker who said she would be offended if I played Rob Zombie, then complained to HR even though I did not play any Zombie. If not, it must be a close (mentally speaking) relative.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

[QUOTE=Bradester;348962]The stupid, it burns us![\quote]

I like that one...I might have to have a T-Shirt made with that on it.

And I'm really surprised the cop was even dispatched to the scene.

Honestly I've seen so many cops in that parking lot I doubt one was called. I'm betting he just flagged a passing cop. Considering it was lunchtime and the fact that there is the aforementioned Checkers, pretty good odds to find at least one or two passing by.

M

[DeltaSierra]

A lot of people don't even realize that some disabilities (like the exhaustion from chemo mentioned above) are not immediately visable. My bf suffers from sciatica, and there are some days when he can barely walk, and other days when he's fine. He has a handicap card that he uses only on those days when he knows he couldn't walk from the end of the lot to a store (and thank goodness for those electric scooter buggies at WalMart!) He's been read the riot act before from people who think that because he isn't in a wheelchair he isn't disabled.

My grandmother has a handicapped license plate, since my only recently deceased grandfather was wheelchair bound. She's able to get around on her own, so she doesn't use the handicap parking spots even though legally she could. She's actually had people tell her that because she has a handicap license plate she can ONLY park in the handicap spots!! Boggles the mind.

[Crazeyal]

There's a backlash, sometimes, from people abusing the system, or just being morons. People get irked, and then they get LOUD. Plenty of people abuse Handicapped parking, including people who ARE Handicapped (relatives using the car etc.. etc..)

This person probably had a bad experience, and with them being disabled (EG STUPID AS A BAG OF ROCKS) they react negatively on the next poor soul who even LOOKS like they are abusing the rules.

I bet they are gonna do that to the WRONG person one of these days.