A disabled woman woke up to find her allocated parking space outside her home had been vandalised.
The letters 'dis' in the 'disabled' sign painted on the tarmac were painted over so that it just read 'abled', a pictured shared with Liverpool Echo showed.
Residents in the woman's local area - around Walton and Kirkdale in Merseyside - expressed their fury after the image was shared in a community Facebook group.
Some branded the vandalism as a "disability hate crime".
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The incident was brought to the attention by the sister of the woman whose parking space was painted over.
In the original post, the sister, who does not want to be named, said "there's some dirty scum out there who have no respect for anyone or anything".
She added she believes the act of vandalism happened in the early hours of Friday morning.
Commenters were quick to condemn the actions of the vandal and jump to the support of the woman whose parking spot it was.
One person said: "Looks as if somebody doesn't think the person who is using the disabled bay isn't disabled, so they have tried to erase the DIS.
"What right have people to question or judge another person's disability. Not all disabilities can be seen."
Another person said: "Well that's plain nasty. They do realise they don't just dish these bays out?
"Seems like someone nearby has decided that she doesn't merit the bay.
"Pity you haven't got it on CCTV - and why anybody finds this funny escapes me."
And a third person wrote: "Sorry this has happened. There are some nasty individuals in this world."
It was later confirmed by the sister that the woman had a visible disability.
She later added the council had been notified and were going to repaint the sign.
