Have you ever been to a store that had a parking spot that was even closer to the front door than the handicapped parking spots? Would you automatically assume that this must be a handicapped parking spot too, or would you assume that it’s a regular parking spot if it doesn’t have any signs or markings indicating that it’s a handicapped spot?

In this story, one man parked in a parking spot that was not a handicapped spot but was more convenient than the actual handicapped spots next to it. Later, another person wanted to park in his parking spot and assumed that it was a handicapped parking spot.

He refused to move his car because it was perfectly legal for him to park there, but now, he’s wondering if he should’ve moved his car anyway.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for parking in a not-accessible spot?

I do not have any disabilities. This happened a few years ago, I was a mid-twenties guy with a medium build. (that is to say, I don’t look disabled in any way.) I drove a 12+ year old lower end Mercedes sedan.

My college town grocery store parking lot was pretty crowded on the day this happened, but while I was looking for a spot, I found that the best spot in the parking lot was open. This spot is literally right next to the entrance for the store.

In fact, it is closer to the door than the two accessible spots next to it, and based on the paint pattern, I’m guessing at one point this was either an accessible spot or an access aisle for the spots next to it.

I can’t think of any reason why he couldn’t park in this spot

It might have been changed because it didn’t meet the handicapped parking standards for my town.

When this happened, all handicapped stripes have been painted black, and the spot has no special markings denoting it as an accessible spot.

It simply was not a handicapped accessible spot.

I parked in this spot.

It seems like his shopping trip started out okay.

It was early spring, and this store sells plants to put in your garden outside this time of year– so I meandered through this area right next to my car for a couple minutes. I then went back to my car, grabbed my reusable shopping bags out of the trunk, and began to head inside.

A man in a large white van had stopped and put his blinker on for my spot, and I waived to signal that I wasn’t leaving. I then went inside.

I believe this man was the husband of the woman who approached me later.

I don’t remember seeing anything on the van denoting handicapped access, but I am confidant the van was marked in some way.

This woman had been trying to track him down.

About 10-15 minutes later inside I am standing at the butcher counter when a 50-60ish year old lady comes up to me with a picture of my car on her phone. These aren’t her exact words, but the gist of what she was asking:

Her: “I’ve been trying to find you–this is your car, right?”

Me: “yes– uh oh– what happened?” I asked, slightly panicked that something happened to my car.

Her: “My husband has [disability] and can’t join me in the store because you took the last handicapped spot. I didn’t see a tag on your car, did you leave it at home?”

He explained the situation.

Me: I just started stammering “Uh… but… I…”

Her: Continues talking about the impact this has had on her and her husband.

Me: (Finally) “It’s not a handicapped spot.”

Her: “It’s not?”

He’s not sure if he handled this situation correctly.

Me: “No. There’s no sign, there’s no ground marking– the other two spots next to it are handicapped spots, but this one is just a regular spot.”

She then left, and I had a flood of adrenaline.

In retrospect days later, I wished I had offered to move my car, or had told her that if she/her husband had asked me to when I was parking, I could have moved.

Was I a jerk for taking this spot, and was I a jerk for not quickly offering to move so her husband could park and come shop with her?

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He could’ve moved his car to be nice, but it’s a little much that she took a picture of his car and walked around the store just to ask him to move it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks the woman was just confused.

Another person reassures him that he handled the situation well.

This person thinks the store messed up.

Nobody thinks he needed to move his car.

What I find weird is that she took a picture of his car and walked through the store looking for him. That’s a little much even if he had parked in a handicapped spot when he wasn’t supposed to.

It seems that she realized she made a mistake though and didn’t get upset about it. He didn’t do anything wrong. All he did was explain the situation.

If she really wants to park in that spot, she can wait until he’s done shopping.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man whose celebratory post-grad school vacation is being ruined by his family’s insistence he’s being lazy.