2/4/2006
Australia: Parking Ticket for One-Armed ManMelbourne, Australia airport officials want to ticket a one-armed man for taking too long to unpack his bags.
![Melbourne Airport](/rlc/pix/melbairport.jpg)
Parking ticket officials at the Melbourne, Australia airport may take a one-armed man to court to charge him with taking too much time to unload luggage from his vehicle on June 1. Stephen McKenzie-McHarg, 54, was told by one parking attendant that he could park in a bus zone to unload his family's bags quickly. Another attendant came by a wrote a ticket as he unpacked.
"I wasn't 30 seconds, but the next little fella threw the book at me," McKenzie-McHarg told the Melbourne Herald Sun. "He's saying, 'Get going, get going'. I said, 'Why don't you give me a hand?' Then he said, 'I'm going to book you.'"
McKenzie-McHarg refuses to pay the A$66 fine and has already written a letter of challenge. Although the the airport authority says on its website that, "The wellbeing of disabled passengers and visitors at Melbourne Airport is of the highest priority at Melbourne Airport," it is currently considering pressing charges in court to obtain the A$66.
"I'm fighting it on principle," McKenzie-McHarg said. "Australians are supposed to be compassionate, helpful people and the ones I know are. I'd like them to apologize and change their ways. Next time the fellow might have just one leg."