Police nab abusers of disabled parking at Woodfield

When it comes to excuses for parking illegally in handicapped-accessible spaces, police have heard them all.

And investigators from the Illinois Secretary of State Police heard several of them again during a Black Friday enforcement crackdown at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg.

Investigator Glenn Florkow said an especially popular rationale is that a previous injury justifies the use of a handicapped space even without the legally necessary placard.

During his patrol of the Woodfield parking lot Friday morning, Florkow spotted an apparently able-bodied woman returning to a vehicle displaying a disability placard in a handicapped space.

The 56-year-old Bartlett woman quickly admitted that the placard actually belonged to her 82-year-old mother, but said her doctor advised her that using it herself was permissible due to a medical condition in her legs.

But when Florkow asked if the doctor would corroborate that story if contacted Friday, the woman reluctantly admitted that he wouldn't.

Florkow confiscated the placard and served notice for the woman to appear in court in Skokie Dec. 19, where she'll face a minimum $500 fine and 30-day suspension of her license if convicted.

“Oh, my God!” exclaimed the woman, who had been coaxed to Woodfield by the promise of Black Friday bargains.

“That's how serious the Secretary of State takes this,” Florkow told her.

Bill Bogdan, disability liaison to the Secretary of State's office, said the improper use of borrowed or stolen disability placards is a more common offense than simply parking is a handicapped space without one. But stepped-up enforcement is usually required to catch such offenders in the act.

The Illinois Secretary of State's office has been helping provide local agencies with stepped up enforcement around the holidays since 2005, and Bodgan said the number of tickets issued has been diminishing over that period.

He added that he was actually impressed by the number of vacant disabled spaces he saw at Woodfield Friday.

“It says to me that people are getting the message,” Bogdan said.

He said people who are legitimately disabled should not have to worry about finding an accessible space on Black Friday and that's the whole point of the crackdown.

Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday, Secretary of State Police issued two tickets for parking in an accessible space without a placard and two for misuse of a placard. Overall, there were 41 inspections of placards or drivers' licenses.

Woodfield was one of five locations chosen for such enforcement — the others being in Bolingbrook, Rockford, Springfield and Marion.

Statewide, there were five tickets issued for parking without a placard and six for misuse of a placard. There were 146 inspections of placards and licenses and four placards were confiscated.

One woman at Woodfield escaped a ticket but had a learning moment when she was told her mother-in-law's disability placard wasn't being properly used because the mother-in-law was in fact being dropped off and picked up right at the door.

Florkow warned that the stepped-up enforcement is continuing in many locations through the holiday shopping season.

“Just because we were here today doesn't mean we won't be back tomorrow,” Florkow said.