Friday October 21, 2005
Sky
Australian officials have issued an apology after a parking ticket was given to a man who was dead in his car.
The 71-year-old had been dead in a car park at a busy shopping centre for at least a week before he was discovered.
The parking ticket was put under his windscreen wiper two days before he was finally found.
The mayor of the local Maroondah Council Peter Denham apologised to the man's family and said the parking officer who issued the ticket was extremely distressed at the oversight.
Mr Denham said the parking officer only visited the shopping centre once a week and probably missed the body because the car's windows were tinted and the driver's seat was apparently reclined.
He said regular users at the shopping centre had also failed to notice that the elderly man was dead.
"It is a very sad situation when you also consider the number of cars that have come and gone beside the gentleman over the time that the car was parked," he said.
He added that despite "the regular police patrols through the area and the security patrols of the shopping center owners, no one else during this time noticed something wrong."
