Handicapped Fraud

OK,

We have all seen it, probably more than once or twice. The car pulls into a handicap parking slot and out jumps a perfectly healthy teen and bounds into the store, all the while proudly displaying the handicapped placard in the window of their car...

So what do you do?

Confrontation is dangerous...

Call the Police, but by the time they get there, most likely they will have left and the officer has to see it to enforce it...

Maybe their handicap just does not show...

Here is another alternative...

Kim Kommando put this out on her show and I think it is an excellent resource....

Write the information down about the vehicle and enter it here...

Handicapped Fraud

They will then notify the appropriate authorities to investigate the incident....

I thought this was WAY overdue...

Semper

Interesting subject.

I know of many people who are legitimately handicap, but refuse to park in those spots. In the dead of winter, which here in Ca-na-da can be painfully cold, they will find a non-designated spot, and walk just like everybody else. I respect that, but I do feel they are unnecessarily punishing themselves.

Those that park in these spots, but are not handicap, are pretty slimy. They deserve to have their vehicles targeted, and this should be investigated.

However, governing this issue can be very difficult. Working where I work, several of my clients are regularly perceived to be quite healthy. But they are not. They do have disabilities, and they are at a severe disadvantages. Physical appearances can be deceiving at times. So, I recommend erring on the side of caution, but at the same time defending the rights of those who deserve this preferential parking.

One such example, that leads me to be very cautious with this, is with a work policy we have. Supporting the individuals that I do, I can enter most places at no cost to myself. The individual needs support, but it would not be justified for them to pay for my way, and considering I am at work, it should not be a cost to myself. Anyways, as a support worker I can enter for free. Our local theater is widely recognized for practicing this policy. However, we had received several complaints from their manager saying that our staff was severely abusing this courtesy, and using it in their free time. What they had said was, some of the people coming through looked "normal", thus nobody should get in for free.

True, very true. They do look normal. But they do face disadvantages that you and I do not. And because their physical appearance may not indicate it, does not mean they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Tough issue.

With this one, more people get away with it than should, because I am hesitant to approach it.

I used to work with a woman who was unbelievably fat and who would use her mother's placard in her car so she could park in a handicapped spot, while genuinely handicapped people had to walk to the employee parking lot.

I soon realized that that was the way she approached everything in her life, always taking the easy way out and looking for someone to take the blame for her own laziness or stupidity.

I lost a lot of respect for my profession by working with the likes of her.

I hope there's a special place in hell for her and her kind.

Well, let's see.
There's emphysema, congestive heart failure, lung cancer, degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and on and on. There are a lot of illnesses that leave you with all your limbs and digits intact and not necessarily requiring a wheelchair that would preclude you from walking long distances. Hell, even bone spurs can make walking 10 feet an excruciating experience. On the bright side, they don't give out handicap placards for bone spurs.

I do see a lot of morbidly obese people using those electric carts to get around in the grocery store and I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "if you'd get off your fat ass and WALK, you wouldn't be so fat as to need a wheelchair." (My "grace" level dips dangerously low at times)

I'd rather see the occasional abuse of handicap parking by people who don't need it than the tattletale mentality that would have us all being spies for the state. There will always be jerks that abuse whatever system is put in place to benefit the needy but I don't want to have a co-worker or neighbor who's mad at me make a false report about my parking and put me in the position of having to prove a negative.

reply to post by whitewave


The problem is that it's not occasional abuse. It's never ending, one does it, leaves, and another perfectly healthy, though socially corrupt, person pulls in right behind.

I'm all for recognizing these schmucks for what they are, socially corrupt, morally bankrupt, what else are they defrauding on?

Here on Long Island this is a very big issue and the different law enforcement agencies are very active in enforcing it.

Every holiday season the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office makes a big thing about issuing tickets to anyone that they find in a handicapped spot without the handicapped parking permit.

Speaking as a person with fibromyalgia I can tell you some days walking indeed moving is intensely painful. I don't have a handicapped placard and frankly don't want one. Handicaps aren't always readily apparent and a person with a condition such as mine appears to be healthy and whole. A good day for me is a day when my pain level is 5. I agree those who can walk should; moving is healthy and should be encouraged.

Those that abuse this privlege should be ashamed of themselves and should receive a ticket. However, before judging a seemingly healthy person for parking there be aware that they may indeed have a handicap.

LOL, looks like they have a member that follows Brittney Spears around all day,while Brittney Spears herself parks in handicap spot after handicap spot... JUST LEAVE BRITTNEY ALONE, waaaaaa waaaaaaa waaaaaaa!! ROFL