TORONTO – An angry note left by a stranger in Michigan on a car parked in a handicapped spot has left the owner feeling puzzled.
Matt Milstead, who has used a wheelchair for two decades, told Wood TV he returned from playing a game of wheelchair rugby when he reportedly found a letter under his car door’s handle.
Milstead said that despite having the appropriate handicapped parking tag displayed in his car’s review mirror, the anonymous letter allegedly accused him of not needing the handicapped parking space.
“I would love to see your wheelchair!” read the letter. “I’m guessing male 25-35 years professional who thinks he’s got the world by the ass. But I could be wrong.”
“I was kind of puzzled why he would leave this note and never met me, didn’t know if I was in a wheelchair or not, but he just assumed I was just someone who tried to steal a close and convenient spot,” Milstead told Wood TV.
Milstead said when his Leslie wife learned about the letter, she was furious and wrote back to the anonymous person on her own Facebook page.
To the author of the note left on my husband’s car at the David D Hunting YMCA:
I wanted to tell you a little bit about my husband since you took the time to write him in the parking lot last night.
You were so close on the age, he’s actually 36, and he is a professional with a full time job. He is also a quadriplegic, which for him means that he can no longer move his legs or his fingers in either hand. He has no grip.
So, if you are willing to give him your functioning hands and legs for the rest of your life in exchange for his 6-year old BMW and handicapped parking pass, I’m sure he’d make that trade.
As for “having the world by the ass”…you think he’s some arrogant jerk who wants to park his fancy car in a handicapped spot and strut into the YMCA in Grand Rapids, MI because he thinks he’s a bad ass? Why are you so confident that a handicapped person couldn’t be a hard worker who is successful and owns a nice vehicle?
I would say he’s a good guy dealing with some tough circumstances that he refuses to be knocked down by. Thankfully, he just shakes his head at people like you who leave notes on his car. Trust me, you aren’t the first. Ignorance is everywhere.
P.S. Look Matt Milstead up on Facebook. You’ll get to see lots of pictures of that wheelchair you had questions about.
To date, the letter has been shared more than 800 times on Facebook.
Leslie said her husband has received similar notes before that he has thrown out. He has experienced other incidents as well.
“He got his car keyed a few years ago in Myrtle Beach when he parked in a handicapped spot,” she told Global News. “He has had people walk by and call him a prick (or other names) when he has pulled into a spot with the window down but not yet gotten out of the car.”
Global News received permission to use the image of the letter for online purposes.
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