Motorists with blue or red placards for the disabled can park all day in metered and public garage spaces for free, so the abuse is most prevalent in downtown areas where parking spaces are at a premium, especially around the downtown Charleston medical complex, King Street, the College of Charleston and the City Market.

It\'s a local and nationwide problem.

Just last month, investigators at Miami International Airport found that hundreds of able-bodied airport and airline workers regularly use parking spaces for the handicapped, fleecing the airport out of $1 million in fees a year.

Last year, Massachusetts investigators found nearly a third of the roughly 1,000 placards they scrutinized in downtown Boston were used by people without disabilities. Forty-nine placards belonged to dead people. The state\'s inspector general called the situation \"an unconscionable insult\" to the truly disabled.

Most cheaters in Charleston go unpunished because the state has a lax record-keeping system that makes it nearly impossible for law enforcement to investigate suspects. Parking enforcement officers, meanwhile, are loath to confront people whose disabilities may not be obvious.

But when asked about their placards, some perfectly healthy motorists readily admit to scamming the system to avoid paying expensive parking fees or simply to ensure they get to work on time, The Post and Courier\'s investigation showed.