‘Hey Handicap!’ Note Left on Ohio Amputee’s Car
MIAMISBURG, Ohio, March 18 (UPI) — A woman with a prosthetic leg who left a note asking a neighbor not to use her handicapped parking space said the “rude” response letter began, “Hey handicap!”
Ashley Brady, 26, of Miamisburg, said she lost her leg in an accident in 2014 and learned to walk again with a prosthetic, but she found walking on ice posed a brand new set of challenges.
“I struggled a lot across the snow and ice in the parking lot trying to learn how to balance and walk,” Brady told WKEF-TV. “I fell multiple times all of which my neighbors have seen.”
Brady said management at her apartment complex agreed to give her a handicapped parking space near the door to her building March 12, but someone without a placard started parking in the spot Saturday. Brady said she left a note on the vehicle.
“I was stern and confident in what I was saying and just letting her know she doesn’t know what its like to walk around without your own leg,” Brady said, “She in return had placed this really rude note under my windshield wiper.”
The response read:
“Hey handicap! First, never place your hands on my car again! Second, honey you ain’t the only one with ‘struggles.’ You want pity go to a one leg support group! You messed with the wrong one! I don’t care what your note said shove it, but you touch my car again I will file a report, I am not playing! I let the office know the cry baby one leg touches my property I will cause trouble so go cry your struggles to someone who cares cause I’m walking away with both mine! -[expletive].”
Brady said she was shocked by the note.
“I read it probably like 5 times over and over,” she said, “Because my brain just couldn’t even process the level of mean that it was.”
A picture of the note was posted to Facebook.
“If this person really knew her they would never talk to her that way because she’s so sweet and would never talk to them that way,” said Brady’s sister, Kaitlyn Siler.
Brady said the note was shared more than 1,000 times on Facebook and she received many encouraging responses.
“I got a lot of feedback online from a lot of other amputees who have been in similar situations,” said Brady, “You’re not just going to get what you want by being bullying. She told me to cry to someone who cares, so I went to the internet and it turns out a lot of people care.”
Brady said she filed a complaint with the police department and apartment complex managers.
