by ERIC WILKINSON / KING 5 News
KING5.com
Posted on March 22, 2011 at 5:31 PM
Updated yesterday at 5:34 PM
OAK HARBOR, Wash. – Parking in a handicap spot is something a lot of drivers are tempted to do, but most resist the urge. Now, a state trooper is in trouble for parking his patrol car there. He was caught in the act by a citizen.
Ricky Fain was at work Monday morning when he encountered a state trooper on duty. The trooper pulled his patrol car in to a handicap parking space at an Oak Harbor strip mall.
"We kinda made jokes looking for the handicapped sticker, or if he was walking funny," Fain said.
But it was no joke, and Fain has the picture to prove it. He snapped a photo after the trooper walked away.
"They enforce the law, but they don't have to abide by it," Fain said.
Fain and others say it would be one thing if the trooper was working a crime scene or in hot pursuit of a criminal, but it appeared he was in hot pursuit of something else. Fain said the trooper and two other patrolmen sat inside and out of Starbucks for at least 20 minutes.
People with legitimate reasons to park in handicapped spots aren't impressed.
"It really makes me mad," said Marlene West who suffers from hip and knee problems. "They're just too lazy to walk."
The Washington State Patrol confirms the mistake.
"We have systems and processes in place to deal with the trooper," said Sgt. J.J. Gundermann. "He will be having a long and awkward conversation with command staff and then this will be documented in his personnel file."
It's a conversation Fain hopes will be heard loud and clear.
"I don't wanna get the guy in trouble. I just want him to abide by the laws like anybody else," he said.
Gundermann says the trooper will not have to pay the standard $250 fine.
