An elderly man was found dead late Tuesday in a parked car that had been ticketed earlier in the day on a street in an unincorporated industrial area near Pico Rivera.
A passerby noticed the man in the driver's seat of the black Lincoln Town Car near Peck and Rooks roads about 7:50 p.m. and notified employees at a nearby truck shop.
A maintenance worker from the shop who went to investigate said a parking ticket on the car was marked as being written about 11 a.m., said Chantelle Amaya, assistant manager at L.A. Freightliner. "The poor man was out there all day," Amaya said.
Amaya said workers at the shop called for help after knocking on the window of the locked car and getting no response.
Authorities were not immediately able to say whether the man was in his car at the time the ticket was issued or if he had returned to it later. Street signs forbid parking on that side of the street from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays to allow street cleaning, and overnight parking is prohibited.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Zarda said he was not sure when the car was ticketed or why the man was not spotted in the car earlier. He said the street has become congested because of growing businesses and big rigs tying up multiple parking spaces.
Workers said it is not uncommon to see cars parked illegally during the day or left overnight. Truckers from the port often park their big rigs on the street or leave their cars there temporarily while they work, they said. The Peck Road entrance to the southbound 605 Freeway is less than a block from where the man's body was found.
Tow truck companies also tow wrecked cars from the nearby freeway and abandon them on the street for days at a time, said Tony Simpson, operations manager at Whittier Transfer and Storage Co.
Simpson, 36, said he has been e-mailing sheriff's officials weekly to complain about cars illegally parked in his lot or those that appear abandoned, which are often broken into.
Zarda said he has received only one report of tow trucks dumping cars on the street and none about car break-ins.
Simpson, who arrives for work at 6 a.m., said he did not notice the man in the car Tuesday, although he did see the car later in the morning but did not notice anyone in it. He found out that the man was found dead Wednesday morning, after an employee called him asking if he knew whether the road was still blocked because of investigations.
