In Beverly Hills, a DMV agent confiscates a disabled parking placard from a woman leaving a fitness center.
In downtown Los Angeles, a motorist launches into a rant about "evil" meter readers after acknowledging that he's using someone else's disabled parking pass.
And in neighborhoods near UCLA, 17 students are stopped and questioned as they scurry to class, their cars parked in restricted zones, disabled parking badges dangling from their rear-view mirrors.
Fraudulent use of disabled parking placards -- those blue or red badges that allow motorists to park for free or in specially reserved spaces -- has exploded in the last decade, according to California motor vehicle officials. With 1 in 10 California drivers now legally registered to carry the passes, transportation experts say abuse has become commonplace. At any given moment, on any given street, more than a third of the vehicles displaying the tags -- and parking without paying -- are doing so illegally, say officials with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
