SAN DIEGO -- Sylvia Leighton works at the University of California, San Diego and must arrive early to get a disabled parking spot.

"Nowadays you have to be here by 6:00 a.m. or 6:30 a.m.," she said.

With a replaced knee and two replaced hips, Leighton has a valid California disabled placard, giver her use of the centrally located disabled spots.

She's surprised to hear that some who are not entitled to the spots are taking advantage of them to save either time or money. There is no parking or meter charge for those in a disabled spot.

"It saddens me that somebody would do that," she explained.

It annoys Ken Brennan, who just stopped working as a parking enforcement officer on campus after 20 years working for the university.

He made 450 arrests for disabled placard abuse in that time.

"People use a deceased person's placard, they use their children's placard, they use their grandma's placard," he said.

Sometimes the placards are stolen or counterfeit, according to Brennan, and when confronted he said the culprits are often irate. One student turned violent.

"She reached in and slapped me in the face," said Brennan.

Brennan said his arrests were mostly of students, but there were also staff members and a professor.

"I had a professor try to run me down in the car, because she had a suspended driver's license," said Brennan.

Brennan did not want to say the professor's name, but the I-Team checked public records, found the citation, ran the license plate number through the Department of Motor Vehicles and learned it was professor Joanna McKittrick, who works in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD.

"She was using her mother's placard," Brennan said.

According to the police report the I-Team obtained, McKittrick was parked in lot 403 at 10 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2008, and she tried to get away.

"She got scared and she backed up and almost ran me down, I had to jump out of the way," Brennan said.

He said the professor drove home then took the bus right back to work. Questioned later, Brennan said, she confessed.

"She broke down, cried and admitted what happened," he said.

Attorney Anthony Solare worked in the San Diego City Attorney's Office prosecuting placard abuse.

"People make bad judgments. They're not seeing the seriousness; they're not seeing that they're depriving somebody of a spot that really needs it," Solare said.

Many people also do not realize that placard abuse is a misdemeanor.

Brennan pointed out, "It's an arrest that goes on your record and it's subject to a $3500 fine, that's the maximum."

McKittrick pleaded no contest to driving without a license and misuse of the placard. She still works at UCSD as she serves three years on probation.