Disabled Man Speechless as Neighbor Tries to Have His Car Towed for Faking

US

A man was left fuming after a neighbor tried to tow his car and then left him a passive-aggressive note accusing him of pretending to be disabled.

The man, who asked to be referred to as RV, lives in California and was given a temporary disability placard after injuring his foot in a rock climbing accident.

Disabled Person (DP) placards are given to people who have impaired mobility and hang in a person’s car to let those around them know they are allowed to park in a disabled parking bay.

The California DMV states that temporary DP placards last up to 180 days and are given to people with temporary impaired mobility, such as a foot injury, in RV’s case.

RV told Newsweek thatthe apartment complex he has lived in for two years has a disabled parking space that “no one has utilized,” so he naturally began parking there.

A few days later, he noticed a towing warning on his car, claiming the vehicle had been parked there for over 72 hours, and shared the story on a Reddit post.

RV found the handwritten note on his car after seeing a towing warning. He shared his frustrations on Reddit where he was fully vindicated by annoyed users.

Reddit u/pidgeytouchesyou

After calling his apartment complex, he was told they “just wanted to verify” that the vehicle belonged to someone in the complex, telling Newsweek it was “ludicrous.”

But the story wasn’t over, as two days later, a handwritten note was left on his car by “presumably the same person” who had reported his vehicle for towing.

It read, in a tone thick with annoyance, “This parking space is not yours. It’s for everyone who needs it that is handicapped. Your placard is fake. Move It…”

RV was having none of it as he knew he was legally allowed to use the space. He also let the note-writer know with his own handwritten piece: “Please call the complex and/or the police if you think this placard is fake.”

And RV, who previously worked in security until his injury left him impaired, told Newsweek, after leaving his note on the car for a day, “I haven’t been bothered ever since.”

Clashes with neighbors are a common frustration for Americans. A LendingTree survey found that 73 percent of people dislike at least one of their neighbors, a number that increases with apartment-dwellers like RV at 79 percent.

RV was gracious enough to give the neighbor the “benefit of the doubt,” suggesting perhaps they didn’t know that temporary red placards, rather than the usual blue, are a thing in California.

“I only found out about them when I received mine,” he said.

Parking
The moderators of r/mildlyinfuriating removed his post because it was much more than mildly infuriating. RV is trying to give grace to the note writer, as they may not have known the red placards are…


Reddit u/pidgeytouchesyou

Reddit users were not quite as gracious, flocking to RV’s post in the hundreds and giving it 23,000 upvotes in the process. The post, shared to Reddit’s r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit on his account u/pidgeytouchesyou, has since been removed, but the comments remain visible.

And the reason for its removal? “This post has been removed as this is not mildly infuriating. Please consider posting to r/extremelyinfuriating instead.”

In the original post, one user suggested that “if you know any gossips in the complex, you’ll probably be able to find out who the culprit is.”

“Sounds like it’s dashboard cam time,” another commenter said, and one even suggested that RV “put your X-Ray pics on the dash.”

“Cowards like this write letters anonymously, instead of asking you directly or leaving a phone number to contact them to clarify the issue. Wienies,” a Redditor wrote.

RV told Newsweek: “The audacity that someone would jump the gun and assume someone is wrongfully using a stall as legally intended is just so baffling.”

Do you have a dispute with your neighbor? Let us know via life@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.