Would you say something if you saw someone park in a handicapped spot without a handicap permit?

Probably say nothing. Ten years ago I would have. I’m old and I have learned that jumping to conclusions usually makes you look like a huge asshole. In this example they could have borrowed a car because they had a flat and didn’t think to change the card over. My mom has a handicap sign in her window. If you look at her she looks overweight but healthy. The truth is that every step she takes hurts.

it’s such a huge fine i can’t believe anyone would even do it.

I would probably say something mild along the lines of “don’t forget to hang your placard, the fines are awful if you get a ticket.” This assumes that they have one and forgot to put it up (which I have done).

The alternative is the person who is using their grandmother’s hang tag and acts as though he or she is parking in the space legally. That really frosts me, but as @johnpowell pointed out, enough people have hidden disabilities that I typically refrain from comment. The exception would be when they have taken the last available spot and my mom and/or I have to hobble in from a distance on our canes. Then I will usually ask them to reconsider with a tone of “you know, if you are having a good day, I sure could use the closer spot today. I am having a not so good day.”

Yes.I have done this more than once. One time it bit back at me though, when the driver then helped his wife out from the back seat, into a wheelchair… Ooops!.... But there was no sign being displayed.

Nothing. IMO they parked there for a reason I am grateful I didn’t have to.

I don’t think I’d say anything. My dad has parked in handicapped spots while driving me home (six hours) from the hospital where I’ve been getting my major surgeries, and we didn’t have a sticker. So I know from personal experience that there are valid reasons to do this, and as others said, I think very few people would take the risk of a large fine without a good reason. I’d feel like an a-hole if I chewed someone out and it turned out they had a tough situation I hadn’t considered.

I just assume they forgot to hang it on the rearview mirror so I mention it. More often than not they thank me, pull it out and hang it up. My mom has one, so we often forget that it’s in her purse, then run back and hang it up.

Handicaps are not always visible. I would say nothing.

From a personal safety standpoint, I would leave well-enough alone. You never know the state of mind a person may be in. Complaining to a person like this, could very well get you hurt and we do not want that. I know its abused and honestly, this enforcement is on the bottom of the enforcement list. Officers usually leave this alone, unles a citizen calls in a complaint.

Like Mariah said, sometimes you do not have time to acquire a handicapped parking permit and well, it really can be a messy situation with a persons personal medical problems.

Am I the only person who (apparently naively) assumed that this Q was not about complaining?

I wouldn’t say anything to the parker; I’d call parking enforcement.

Like others have said, I’ve learned to hold my tongue when it comes to making an assumption. I watched a woman pull into a handicapped slot that had no sticker or sign. This was at a strip mall where even the furthest parking spot isn’t that far away, especially first thing in the morning. Then she pulled out a crutch from the trunk/boot of the car. When we were both settled in the dentist’s office, she said, unsolicited, that she just bought a new car and didn’t have a new sticker yet. Maybe she saw the initial look on my face and that is what caused her to mention it.

For me, this isn’t worth bringing up with a potential abuser. It doesn’t seem to happen that often, we are more often wrong than not, and I doubt that anything a stranger says to the guilty will change their rationalization process.

Pied Piper….......I totally agree with your answer. jp

I would do/say nothing. I don’t know their circumstances and maybe they don’t have a placard and don’t usually need one, but were having a bad day (breathing, walking, dizzy,etc.).

Nice car?

I wouldn’t say anything. It’s none of my business, even if I do think that it is wrong. Situations like that often end in a row if someone speaks up and acts like a know-it-all which can sometimes cause more harm than good when the person in the wrong starts to feel defensive. If I saw that a genuinly disabled person was struggling to park I would probably take the offending car’s registration and, if I was in a supermaket car park, for example, inform the store manager so that they good trace the owner if they felt it necessary.

I would mention it to the store security or parking attendant. Let it be sorted out by someone who gets paid to sort it out. I don’t want to get beaten up