Over the weekend my wife and I had to pick up a package which consisted of two large heavy boxes. When we arrived, I was thankful we were able to park in the one and only accessible parking space which was located directly beside the main entrance. When we arrived, I noticed a man and his wife coming out pushing a cart with their order and noticed him motioned to his wife to wait.
At this point he went off to get his vehicle so they could load their small order. I guess his bright idea - instead of pushing the cart to his vehicle like everyone else - was to back his vehicle up into the accessible parking space to load their order. Now I am already parked in the accessible parking space at this point getting my car ready for the packages my wife went inside to get that we were going to have to load into our vehicle, when I hear someone saying; “You’re in my spot”, at first, I ignored this as I simply didn’t believe anyone would be saying this to me. Then he repeated himself and at this point I looked at him puzzled wondering how I am I in his space. So immediately I asked him; “do you have an accessible parking permit” He said; “No” I even went onto explain to him that I have a disability and that it was definitely not his space.
At this point I thought I was going to get in a fight
But he kept insisting that I was in his space, at this point I simply ignored him and noticed he was purposely getting close to my vehicle as he was attempting to back his vehicle up beside mine - into and area marked clearly with large letters saying NO PARKING. At this point I opened the tailgate of my SUV forcing him to adjust the position of his vehicle as he ignorantly tried to park beside me in the no parking zone. As he was doing this I needed to go around to my side doors to put my rear seats down. As I was doing this he accused me of purposely doing it to make it harder for him to back his vehicle into the no parking zone. I responded by saying; “Your right as you’re the one backing into an area that say No parking” I proceeded to say; “I don’t need to give you any room as I need the extra space to open my doors.” explaining to him I have a disability. At this point I was getting quite angry and I guess he could see it on my face, resulting in him saying; “Okay, Okay” then he loaded his vehicle and went on his way.
It’s just amazing to me how many idiots and morons have no respect for people with disabilities - ignorantly treating accessible parking spaces as loading zones or a great place to drop passengers off. In this situation this guy was a total moron to think he had any right to my accessible parking space. Especially when he could have just pushed his cart through the parking lot to his car and load it from there like everyone else was doing. It's just amazes me how selfish some people can be, and those who have every right to use accessible parking shouldn’t have to deal with kind of stupidity.
