Woman Doesn’t Believe Man Is Disabled, Tries to Get Him to Give Up His Parking Spot
Published Sept. 18 2023, 7:22 a.m. ET
A parking Karen incident caught in what appears to be the UK shows a bizarre scene where a woman is trying to contend that she is more disabled and thus more worthy of a disabled parking spot than a man currently occupying the spot.
The situation went viral on TikTok and in it, a woman can be seen creeping up to the front of the car holding her cell phone in front of her. The person inside the vehicle rolls down the window of the passenger's side of the vehicle to speak to the woman, who mutters, "This is a disabled parking bay."
The man then tells the woman, "well done," and she questions the man asking if he's got a "disabled badge" that allows him to legally park in the spot. He informs her that he indeed does, and it's in the front of the vehicle.
"Okay yeah, anything else?" he tells her as she continues to record the vehicle with her smartphone. "I, I'm sorry, is that a fake badge?" she asks the man, further inquiring him. At this point in the video, she hasn't identified herself as a police officer or representative of the traffic authority.
From the looks of it, she's just being nosey, and continues to press the issue with the disabled driver inside the vehicle: "No, it's not a fake badge," he tells her as she looks inside his car. The man admonishes her and asks her what she's doing.
"You don't look like you're disabled to me," the woman tells him. "Okay and what's that supposed to mean?" the man replies to the woman, sounding confused with her assertion.
"This is a disabled parking place and I would like to park my car here. I have a disability," she explains to the man as she contends that she is more disabled than he is.
"Have you just not seen my disabled parking badge?" he tells the woman. "But I'm sorry, it doesn't look like my badge," she tells him. "It looks nothing like my badge," and that she believes his parking placard is a dupe and that he is "breaking the law."
"I'm not breaking the law," he replies.
"Did you borrow this and photocopy it it looks like a photocopy," she yells. "You don't look disabled at all you've got this big lovely car, you've got a big car and there's no alterations."
The two begin talking over each other at this point until the man tells her that it isn't a "competition" as to who is more disabled than the other.
"Excuse me I don't have to show my disability but it's there and I have the correct disabled badge on my car which is actually waiting outside," she goes on, adamant about taking the spot that the man is currently parked in.
"Is there a disabled badge on my car, yes or no?" the man asks the woman. She acquiesces that there is before launching into a tirade about how she knows the "best parking officer" and that she's going to call them to inspect the matter.
At one point, the irate woman attempts to reach into the man's car to remove his parking badge, however, she can't reach it. The video ends with the woman continuing to argue about wanting the disabled spot, reiterating that there's no way the man can possibly be disabled because his car doesn't look like one a disabled person would drive.
According to Gov.UK, there are specific "blue badge" disabled parking permits used by individuals who require special concessions whilst parking. however, there do seem to be specific, regional parking permits, like these white ones in Lambeth, that folks can apply for upon receiving their "blue badge scheme."
The Commons Library of the United Kingdom's Parliament indicates that there are regional parking schemes that may appear different from the blue badges given by the government at large: "The Blue Badge scheme provides parking concessions for disabled people in England. Separate but similar schemes operate in other regions. A more limited scheme operates in some London boroughs."