My mother has arthritis in her knees and on some days it is very difficult for her to walk more than a 20 steps. Other times she is good for a walk up and down the street. She has a permit, although I have no doubt Keeler Elf would think that she is faking.
Does she take up designated parking spots on her good days, with the result that more severely handicapped people had to walk further?
Then on those days, I think she's faking too.
Give the Elf a bit of credit. It sounds like he sees this person every day and has formed an opinion based on regular observation.
I know two people, who have tags they don't actually need. One is a scum-bag, a psychic-healer, con-artist who parks down the street, and another, just a simple faker, a former 6-months on crutches, knee-surgery patient who is now perfectly able bodied but with a life-time tag, and proud to tell one and all how cool it is.
Frank Magazine used to do a regular photo series in which they outed prominent, or at least rich Toronto drivers with handicapped tags who didn't seem to need them.
There are lots of fakers out there, and lots of people abusing the ones issued to a family member, but one who is only occasionally or perhaps very rarely in the car.
I had a tag for a family member for a while. It didn't mean I could park my car with impunity at all, by the way. No parking in: no stopping zones, during prohibited times, by hydrants, loading zones or in paid parking lots. And dickhead parking enforcement types would frequently pull up behind the car, "legally" parked in a no parking zone, write the ticket, walk to the windshield, and see the tag - but leave the ticket anyway.
Too much trouble to cancel it, evidently, for these lazy pricks, necessitating frequent trips down to John Street to join the line up to have the ticket canceled.
It happened four or five times a year. I got more tickets in the two years I had that tag than all my driving years combined.
When I drove alone in the car, did I sometimes get away with parking in no parking spots, or in legal spots without paying? Of course I did.
Did I use designated handicapped spots at the mall when I was alone in the car? Of course not.
Did I get pissed off when we couldn't find a spot at the mall because they were all being used by phonys and fakers?
You bet.
I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on Terb, but I'm entitled to my opinion on whom I suspect is faking as well.
When you have owned a tag, you start to notice things about other tag owners.
One thing I like to point out to people is a class of asshole I call the "limpers."
They park by the mall doors in the wheel chair spot, get out of the car, and kind of limp-walk to the entrance. Keep watching some of them, and you'll often see the limp gradually disappear, like watching Keyser Soze walk away at the end of "The Usual Suspects."
Actually, Compromised, elderly people, seniors, like your mother, limping or not, I generally assume have some ongoing medical problem, and I don't fret about them. I'm less sympathetic to the growing number of obese people that I see tying up the limited number of designated spots, and using the handicapped elevators, and are gradually bankrupting our medicare system. Pretty soon we're going to have a 50% obesity problem like in some parts of the states, with all of them screaming disability and demanding hip and knee surgery, free parking and free motorized wheelchairs.