Posted on 02/26/2009 3:21:48 PM PST by SES1066
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A car found in a Gainesville neighborhood with a dead body in the back seat had been ticketed seven times by city parking enforcement.
Police found the body when a resident called authorities Monday afternoon to report the car, which had been parked on the street for days. A preliminary autopsy helped police identify the body as 42-year-old John Waldo, who had been missing since Feb. 11.
Police say the autopsy revealed no obvious cause of death. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results, which may take up to six weeks.
City records show the first ticket was issued to the 2001 BMW on Feb. 12, the day after Waldo was last seen alive.
A Gainesville city spokesman pointed out that ticket officers are not trained police officers but work out of the city's public works department.
Where’s Waldo?
Not My Job! bump
“...A Gainesville city spokesman pointed out that ticket officers are not trained police officers but work out of the city’s public works department...”
Yes, because it takes a great deal of training to distinguish dead bodies from other objects in the back seat of an auto.
I thought cops were supposed to be observant.
I find it difficult to believe that parking enforcement officers didn't NOTICE a dead body in the back seat, unless it was under a pile of blankets or something. As a judge of my acquaintance asked a traffic court defendant, "How do you NOT see a MARTA bus?"
They probably just didn't want to be bothered.
All that paperwork just ain’t worth the bother.
There was a homeless person who died on the lawn next to the Los Angeles Hall of Administration several years back who had the grass cut around him the day before someone finally figured out he was dead.
This is a plus, the city will now have enough revenue to properly investigate why this guy wasn’t paying his tickets.
He was just dying to pay the tickets.....
I’m sure if it was actually a ticketed offense to be dead in a parked car, the keystone cops would have found him earlier.
I dunno. Does being dead qualify you for Handicapped parking?
Florida. Good chance the windows were tinted.
We should not expect "Public Works" employees to be able to determine if there are dead bodies in the seats of cars they ticket. They need training for that ...
I propose we put $100 million in training funds for public works employees in the next stimulus package, and I don't want to see that money going to skilled workers or white guys.
I didn’t know that you had to be a trained police officer to see a body in a car. I wonder how that training goes.
But even with tinted windows, after that length of time there would have been a ghastly smell. (Don’t ask me how I know that.)
My guess is they are probably former UF athletes who never made it to the pros or graduation.
Spotting a dead body is above their pay grade.
Maybe that’s a normal smell in that neighborhood.
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