Burlington police have stored dozens of handicap placards at the headquarters to serve as warning. They once belonged to people who needed them but eventually they ended up in the wrong hands.
“Some expired, some are using other peoples,” Burlington Police Officer William Trelegan said
Burlington Police are finding more and more people posing as handicapped relatives or worse – taking the identity of a dead disabled person just so they can park in a prime spot.
“I think it’s just something that just turns the stomach of everybody,” Trelegan said.
7News watched as Officer Trelegan approached a woman sitting in a handicap parking spot in the Burlington Mall with a handicap placard hanging.
The woman told him it belonged to her sister who wasn’t with her.
Like a license, a handicap signs have a a name, a picture and an expiration date.
“This placard expired April 24, 2008 and a quick google search showed the owner of this placard is deceased,” Trelegan explained
That got the driver a $200 parking ticket and a $505 misuse citation. But there’s more – when officers ran the information she gave them, they said they discovered she had a suspended license.
According to the Burlington Police Department it’s not uncommon for these parking problems to unveil other criminal activity.
After that 7News reporter Kimberly Bookman approached the driver.
KB: “I wanted to talk to you about the ticket you received. I understand you parked in a handicap spot?”
Driver: “Yeah for a second. I was waiting to see if someone pulled out because I was driving around for the last 15 minutes.”
KB: “Do you feel bad about doing that? I know police are cracking down on that to make sure people who need these spaces are using them.”
Driver: “Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t staying. I didn’t even get out of the car. Can you get the mic out of my face please?”
Officer Trelegan told 7News “The reality is it’s going on all the time, all the time”
It didn’t take long to spot another offender in the same lot. Just after Officer Trelegan wrote a ticket for an expired placard, which is a violation in and of itself, two senior citizens approached. He asks for a license to match to the handicap placard. When she couldn’t provide one she was caught.
Misuse of placards is such a concern that Burlington’s Disability Access Commission paid for two officers to monitor handicap parking for 10 days in March.
They ended up giving out 159 parking tickets and 11-misuse citations.
“You watch the people come out of the mall that have a hard time walking that aren’t taking these spaces up. When you see someone that walks fine, jumps into a car and takes off,” Trelegan said. “It’s eye opening.”
Burlington officers said they are also finding people who alter handicap placards almost like a Fake ID replacing their name and picture for their own use.