One of the first lessons parents teach their children is not to judge a book by its cover, but (as we all know) some people just don't learn.
A rude stranger must have judged Shellie Chandar too quickly when she parked in a handicap spot last week, because Chandar returned to find her car smeared with dog poop.
Chandar says she's "pretty used" to getting "the look" when she uses these special parking spots, because at first glance she doesn't appear to have a disability. But the realtor from San Diego says her painful multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms can make walking difficult.
MS is a chronic disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, according to the Mayo Clinic. Damage caused by the disease can affect all parts of the body, causing numbness and weakness, loss of vision, pain, tremors, dizziness and fatigue.
She says the unidentified vandal spat, dented, and smeared poop on her car. "I was with client too when it happened so although I wanted to cry," she wrote on Facebook. "I did what I do best and laughed it off."
The stranger's rude behavior is even more disgusting because Chandar's disability placard was visible while they trashed her car.
She told ABC 7 that finding the mess on her car after visiting her mother in the hospital only added to her stress, which can aggravate her chronic symptoms.
She called the act of vandalism "really violent, and so cruel and so crude," while reminding us all that some disabilities are hard to identify at a glance.
"I just felt like I needed to do it in hopes that the person that did it would actually see the video and feel kind of 'poopy' themselves."
"Just consider the fact that disabilities aren't always visible," she added, "and that they don't realize what it took for me that day to just get up and go meet clients and go around for the day."
While Chandar hasn't contacted police about the vandalism, she hopes that whoever is responsible for the crime will have a change of heart.
"I don't know what happened to them that day that made them so very angry with me."
[H/T: ABC 7]