Wheelchair-bound man keyed car because it was parked in handicapped spot

Will Greenlee

TC Palm
Thursday, August 27, 2009

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 71-year-old man with no legs is accused of scratching a Nissan parked in a handicapped space at a Walmart SuperCenter, apparently thinking the Nissan driver was abusing the parking privilege, according to a police spokesman and a report released Thursday.

The 39-year-old victim on Wednesday told an employee at the Walmart on South U.S. 1 that she was picking up her handicapped mother. She was gone for about 30 minutes, and reportedly noticed someone had keyed the driver's side of the 2009 Nissan Altima.

A check of the surveillance system reportedly showed a legless man in a motorized wheel chair come out of a white van.

The man “powered his wheel chair across the parking lot to where (the victim's) car was parked . . . and came from the front to the rear of the driver's side,” a report shows.

Stopped while exiting the store, Keith Brian Berry, 71, apologized for the “most stupidest thing” he's ever done. He said “people always abuse the handicapped parking when they are not handicapped.”

Berry apologized to the victim, saying he didn't think of the possibility her mother could be handicapped. The Nissan had a handicapped decal hanging from the rear-view mirror.

Berry, of the 3400 block of Bromeliad Court, was issued a notice to appear in court Sept. 23 on a criminal mischief charge. Berry was told he could be arrested for trespassing if he returns to Walmart.