2006-10-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

"Disabled Man Upset by Disabled Handicap Button on Door"

St. Paul, MN

Local handicap Don Heltzmann was full of outrage after a run-in with a disabled electric-door opener at a local hardware store. Mr. Heltzmann had arrived shortly after the store's opening to pick up some tools for his regular home improvement projects. His attempt fell short, however, when he found that the handicapped-button on the outside door was dysfunctional.

"Well what good is the piece of shit if it don't work," yelled Don as he slowly lost began to lose control, "all you've got up there is a shiny silver decoration as far as I'm concerned."

Don thought to himself that he knew exactly how to change out the battery on the dysfunctional button, but that the tools and battery he would need were inside of the store, outside of his current accessibility range.

Don continued to get angry after a couple other attempts, and began calling the handicapped-button "retarded," "worthless," "an insult," and "a conspiracy."

"I see whats going on here, trying to watch the handicapped guy freak out cause he cant get into the store. Well fuck em! Im not playing their fucking game. Im not doin your wheelies and spinning around like a fucking wheelchair monkey."

Don's anger was then re-focused on the disabled button, which he pressed again patiently as he breathed heavily through his nose, and then began punching repeatedly in a frenzy that left his right hand bloodied and trembling, and Don hunched over in his wheelchair crying.

Another customer, 89 year old retired factory worker Linda Hill, offered to hold the door open for Heltzmann, who refused adamantly, calling her "a patronizing whore." Linda shook her head at Don's impotent rage, and went into the store, disturbed both by Don's tirade and the blood dripping down off the disabled disabled button.

Heltzmann has had similar run-ins in the past, including disappointments with a broken water fountain, a wheel that came loose and separated from his chair, and a cup of coffee that didnt cool down fast enough, leaving Don's mouth with third-degree burns and blisters for almost a week.

Heltzmann is also unique in that he often confuses which accident it was that left him in the chair, often citing a tumble down the stairs in 1989 as the cause, thought it was a full 2 years before the bocce ball incident that left him wheelchair-bound.

AreaNews.Org