Sunday, August 8, 2010

Ticketing The Dead...?


I realize that a lot of cities are having a hard time making their budgets stretch, but this report makes me wonder!

Sometimes I wonder if these folks are really paying attention to what's going on around them. Judging the circumstances, I'd have to say "NO"...!

This whole thing sounds like a real comedy of errors from the get-go!

Dead man gets ticket for parking too long in 2-hour zone

By Jill Kimball
Seattle Times staff reporter

A parking-enforcement officer unknowingly gave a parking ticket to a dead man in the driver's seat of a car Tuesday afternoon.

The officer had marked cars with chalk at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and returned just after noon to find one car with a chalk mark still parked in the same place. The zone where the car was parked, on the 1700 block of Airport Way South, was a 2-hour parking zone.

The driver, a 36-year-old man, was seemingly asleep in the driver's seat. The officer rapped on the window to wake him and tell him to move the car, but she got no response. The officer assumed the man was a sound sleeper and put a $42 parking violation on the car's windshield.


About a half-hour later, police got a call from the man's girlfriend, who with a friend had found his car. She'd called a car dealer to get the vehicle's GPS position, police said. The girlfriend found all four doors unlocked, the sunroof open and the man unresponsive.

Seattle Fire medics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

The cause of death is unknown, Seattle police said, and there was no sign of violence. Fire Department medics said the man probably had died early Tuesday morning, hours before the parking-enforcement officer marked the car's tire.

The man's girlfriend said she had last seen him at about 9:45 Monday morning, according to a police report. She'd tried to call his cellphone at about 12:30 p.m. that day, but when the phone picked up all she heard was music before the call was disconnected. When she tried to call back, she got the man's voice mail and assumed the phone's battery had gone dead.

A witness reported seeing someone moving around in the car Monday, when it was apparently parked in the same place. Later that day, around 4 p.m., the same witness returned to see a man apparently asleep in the driver's seat. When the witness returned at noon Tuesday, he saw the same car still parked on the block and the man in the same position.

The man's girlfriend and some friends drove around Monday night trying to find him or his car, but had no luck.

Police never found the man's keys, wallet or cellphone in his clothes or anywhere in the car.

Jill Kimball: 206-464-2136

Somehow, I don't feel any better knowing that the ticketing officer couldn't tell the difference between a sleeping driver and a dead one. I guess it's a good thing they don't work anywhere in the medical field!

Sounds like another prime candidate for a government job to me! What do you think?

Let's have some fresh coffee on the patio today. Sure could use a rain shower!

7 comments:

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Nowdays not many people have seen dead people, so I´m not that surprised. But if I had rapped on the window and gotten no respnce I would have opened the door to see if everything was ok.

I wonder if he still has to pay :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

JoJo said...

Good Morning My Special One
But see its not my job to check if he's dead I just give out tickets. But what about the witness? He is ready to say he saw this person in that car in the same position for 2 days. OH yeah lets not get involved to see if this guy needs help. But now that he has been found he is a store of informtion.
He to can get a government job.
Pass the pot please it is cold here today had to add a blanket last night.

HermitJim said...

Hey Christer...
It wouldn't surprise me if the guys estate still had to pay the ticket!

No telling what folks are thinking these days, that's for sure!

Thanks, buddy, for dropping in!


Hey JoJo...
I just don't see how some one can stay un-noticed while being dead in a parked car for that long!
Guess it's just me!

Cold? Did you say cold?

Man, I can't even imagine cold this time of the year! Still touching on the 100 degree mark here! A cold front would be in the 70's or 80's!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming by today!

Anonymous said...

Just making my rounds and letting you know that I do. By the way, the federal Government sends out paychecks to Dead People all the time just because they show up to the job.

HermitJim said...

Hey Nick...
Ya have to wonder if most of the jerks working for the gov. aren't dead from the neck up!

Hey, buddy, thanks for coming by today!

Noki said...

How many degrees of suspicious is this whole thing? Two days? No apparent cause of death? No keys or wallet? WOW!

Hugs,
Ashley

HermitJim said...

Hey Ashley...
Does sort of make one wonder, doesn't it/

Lesson? Don't take a nap in your car..cause you might wake up dead!

Sounds pretty strange to me!

Thanks for coming by today!