Handicapped Parking Abuse: What Would You Do?

March 4, 2008 — -- Handicapped parking is reserved for those who have a valid permit, but what would you do if you saw two women, who obviously didn't need a handicapped parking spot, drive into one?

ABC News used hidden cameras to put that question to the test. We hired two actresses to drive a bright-red sports car and deliberately park it into the only handicapped parking space in the parking lot of a popular deli in Millburn, N.J.

One might think that a blatant violation would provoke immediate outrage, but it did not. So we raised the stakes by sending in an actress who was handicapped in real life.

Sometimes our handicapped actress demanded the parking spot from her van, while at other times she came out of her van and confronted the other actresses who were behind the wheel of the sports car.

Many people took action -- the reactions were very different from our earlier test, where the handicapped actress was not present.

A man with a young daughter came to our handicapped actress' defense and yelled at the other women. "Hey you kids are not supposed to park there. It's a handicapped spot."

Other outraged passersby shouted comments such as, "You're unbelievable!" "That's terrible!" or "That's disgusting."

A group of former schoolteachers on their way to lunch gave the actresses in the red car the equivalent of a ruler on the knuckles.

"That's awful, can you believe this. … It's a handicap. What the hell's wrong with you?" said Nancy Michenfelder, a former schoolteacher from New Jersey. She was provoked to act because "somebody needs that spot, took it and that's not right. When you have somebody that's needy, why should somebody that can park any place and get around use it?"

Bystander Norma Miller sided with the handicapped actress when the other actresses told Miller that there were more parking spots available in the back and that they snagged the coveted spot first. Miller stepped up and said, "You're really very fresh, and inconsiderate and thoughtless. Get out of the spot or I will call the police."