A beauty therapist who suffers from a painful long-term condition was verbally abused by a driver for parking in a disabled space – despite having a blue badge.
Alexandra Bennett, 29, was sat in her car with her 10-year-old son when the man started swearing and shouting outside a doctors surgery in Crewe, Cheshire.
She had just picked her son Lucas up from his school when he screamed at her and told her to ‘get out’ of the space.
Ms Bennett suffers from Fibromyalgia which causes pain all over the body, fatigue and muscle stiffness.
But she was accused of being ‘too idle’ to walk a short distance by the motorist who was furious and waved his blue badge in front of her.
The man launched a foul-mouthed rant after the woman was parked in a disabled bay outside the doctors surgery
Alexandra Bennett (pictured) parked outside the doctors surgery when she was picking her son up from school
Alexandra Bennett (pictured) was picking her son Lucas up and filmed the outburst on her smartphone
The foul-mouthed man can be heard swearing and shouting while her son watches on in horror and is heard saying ‘what the hell’ and ‘this is silly’.
Bizarrely, he then says ‘don’t use the race card’ – despite Ms Bennett not mentioning race at all during the exchange.
The footage shows both motorists brandishing their disabled badges at each other out of their car windows.
A passer-by later arrived and tried to defend Ms Bennett, telling the man he shouldn’t be behaving in such a way near a primary school.
Ms Bennett can be heard shouting ‘your behaviour is disgusting’ while the man replies: ‘Don’t mention that race card’.
He then says: ‘You come here, you park the car in a disabled spot. You’re just too idle to walk over there.’
She posted the videos on Facebook, writing: ‘Is it any wonder people don’t respect their eldest. Tuesday afternoon minding my own business then I get this abuse!
‘For those of you that don’t know I am classed as disabled so I have a disabled badge to allow me to park on disabled spaces.’
‘I’m so upset, I constantly get abuse because I don’t look disabled and to shout at me like this in front of my son is disgusting!
Her son Lucas (pictured together) was in the car when the man was swearing and holding up his blue badge
Ms Bennett uploaded the video on Facebook and said that she was ‘so upset’ because she gets ‘abuse because she ‘doesn’t look disabled’
‘And to top it off I get accused of pulling the race card when I didn’t mention one thing about my colour.’
Fibromyalgia, also called fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), typically develops between the ages of 30 and 50, and is more common in women than in men.
Speaking today, Ms Bennett said: ‘I felt really upset, more so for my son to witness that and honestly I did feel a little worried of what he would of done because he was so angry.
‘When he said the race comment I honestly felt so fed up and upset because I never insinuated anything of the sort.’
The incident took place yesterday afternoon outside Hungerford Medical Centre in Crewe.
She added: ‘I was picking up my son from school and I parked in the doctors’ car park which is right opposite my son’s school because parking is a nightmare around there so I used the disabled parking space that was closest for me to get to the school.
‘I waited for my son as he usually meets me on the car park and as I waited the man that hurled abuse at me parked right next to me in the next disabled parking bay.
‘He parked that close to my car that my son was unable to get into the car, so without making a fuss I reversed out and pulled back in to the bay to give my son more room to get in the car.
She wrote on Facebook that she always gets accused of not being disabled when she parks her car
Ms Bennett suffers from Fibromyalgia which causes pain all over the body, fatigue and muscle stiffness and has a disabled badge
‘The man started shaking his head at me so I asked him why are you shaking your head at me then the video follows from there.
‘He kept staring at me in my car before he kicked off so I think that he was brewing up for a while.’
Hundreds of social media users took to the video post blasting the man for his behaviour.
Kelly Louise wrote: ‘How rude, you didn’t even mention anything about race so don’t know where he got that from. Crazy man and you handled that well.’
Jason Barnes wrote: ‘These people need to be reported for the abuse they give people whose disabilities can’t be seen.’
Liam Nice wrote: I would have knocked the old c**** teeth out!! Can you see your poor son’s hand really shaking in the last clip.’
Kelly Osborne Stockwell said: ‘How awful for you and your son. What a disgusting little man.
‘There’s no excuse to behave like that, to scream and shout abuse, let alone in front of a child.’