Man finds handicapped parking placard, uses it for a year: police

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A 35-year-old west suburban man found a handicapped parking placard belonging to a 73-year-old Chicago woman and used it for over a year to get better parking, he told police after being caught at Brookfield Zoo.

On Saturday afternoon, a zoo employee noticed that the placard was being used illegally and notified Chicago Zoological Society Police and Riverside police, according to a statement from Riverside police.

Officers later saw Shalimar J. Boyd, 35, of the 600 block of Wolf Road in Hillside, get into the car, the release said. When questioned, he told police that the car and the placard were both his.

But when police checked the number of the placard, they learned the registered owner was a 73-year-old Chicago woman, who told police she lost it is April 2010.

Boyd then stated that he found the placard on the street in Chicago and used it for about a year to get better parking in public places, according to police.

Boyd, who is not handicapped, was parked in a marked handicap space for the entire time. He was charged with using a lost or stolen handicap placard when not authorized to do so.