From The Age newspaper (Australia)

Parking inspectors fine dead driver
By Selma Milovanovic
October 21, 2005 - 9:48AM

An elderly man who had been dead for several days, slumped over the wheel of his car, was this week issued with a parking fine.

Maroondah City Council parking officers stuck the fine on the windscreen of the man's car on Wednesday at the Croydon Market shopping centre.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that police discovered the deceased man, 71, yesterday and found a parking ticket on the windscreen of his car. He had been reported missing to police nine days ago and was known to be seriously ill.

The man's friend, known only as Marie, told 3AW today she was disgusted by the parking officers' behaviour.

"From what the police had told me, it would have been very obvious he was deceased so I'm really disgusted."

The Maroondah City Council is expected to issue a statement later today.

An autopsy will confirm the cause and time of the man's death.

Your first foray into the discussion forums in god knows how long is THIS? :p

Very odd though...very odd.

Interesting.

What a b*tch. Obviously the ticketer didn't notice or he would have done something..

The writer had to be blind to not notice someone sitting in the car dead when putting the ticket on there.

The parking inspector was probably more interested in handing out a parking fine.

Last year someone here had their car burn to the ground, and then the parking people came by and gave them a ticket for not having their permit displayed on the smoldering hulk.

I demand pictures.



To see if the woman is right, of course. I mean, to the ticket-writer it might've just looked like he was passed out drunk or something along those lines. While they say he was obviously dead, well yeah you're gonna look obviously dead when you've been rotting in a car for nine days. But they didn't say when the ticketer wrote it out.

I really hate it when they don't put in details like that.

Hahahaha. I remember that. I just remember one minute there was a Ford F150 and then an hour later it was melted to the pavement.

The fellow had been rotting in his car for nine days at the parking lot of a market center? I don't think the poor parking inspector deserves all the blame...

I don't think disgusting is the right word for the ticket givers behavior. I highly doubt the inspector spotted that the driver was dead and then just wrote the ticket anyway.
The inspector may have been pre-occupied, single minded or just plain stupid, but I doubt he would've knowingly written a ticket for the dead driver.

Just heard on the news that apparently the windows were tinted and the seat was reclined all the way back. It would have been difficult to tell if anyone was in there, alive or dead.

well, you don't know how long the body was in there AFTER the ticket was put on.... reported missing nine days ago... if the ticket was put on on the first day, he could have though it was just a drunk man "sleeping it off".... but after 2 or 3 days in the HEAT of a completely closed up car, he would have started to decay VERY fast.... who's to say what the body would have looked like when the ticketmaster was there?

If you were a parking inspector, and you saw someone in the car you were going to give a ticket to, wouldn't you tap the window or something?

Yes, definitely. When I'm at school, and one of my classes is cancelled, sometimes I'll go nap in my car for however long the class is if I'm tired. I would hope a ticketer would tap the window if he saw me in there.

I would just like to raise a point in defense of traffic wardens and others of their type...

Although I only know the facts so far stated I think it is wrong to expect traffic wardens to tap on the window, sure some do but others are too afraid to. They do a job that other people don't respect and are often attacked for doing what they get paid to do. The traffic warden might have been too nervous to tap on the window incase the driver turned violent.

Discalimer: Some traffic wardens get a kick out of this so the same rule dosen't apply to all.

This thread should be titled "Parking inspectors fined dead driver." Double meaning!

Wolfy my friend you are just all about the double meanings.

No link to the article = urban legend. It's fake.

The Age - article

Raynar

"Police and the coroner are now investigating when the man died, to determine if he was in the car at the time the ticket was issued."

They don't even know if he was in there at the time yet.