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Man found dead in car with stack of parking tickets on windshield

A Florida man was found dead Nov. 15 inside his SUV, which was parked just blocks away from the blocks Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Five parking tickets piled up on the vehicle's windshield over the course of four days before the man was found inside.

Passerby Carolyn White was the first person to notice Jacob Morpeau, 62, sitting in the car.

"I can understand why the meter person probably didn't see him from the driver's side," White, who had parked nearby, told the Sun Sentinel.

Morpeau was found sitting in the driver's seat of a Isuzu Axiom SUV with his upper body facing down over the SUV's center console, the Sentinel reported.

"He was underneath the steering wheel, his head was in the middle of the seat, between the two seats," White said. "But you could see him on the passenger's side. That's how I seen him, from the sidewalk."

White said Morpeau was holding a credit card.

According to the Broward County Medical Examiner's office, Morpeau, who had suffered from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, died of natural causes.

Parking tickets on Morpeau's vehicle showed time stamps of 7:39 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, and 7:03 a.m. on Nov. 14. Two tickets were timed 6:39 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. on Nov. 15 for two separate meters; Morpeau's car extended into two parking spaces.

The city dismissed the $160 in parking fees "due to extenuating circumstances," an assistant clerk told the Sentinel.

It's unclear how long Morpeau was in the car before he was found Nov. 15.

"I was being nosy. I never let the meter man catch me. I never got a parking ticket, and I wanted to know why somebody else got caught. And that's what made me look inside," White said. "I wish I could have been there earlier."
Kevin McGoey, the man that made the 911 call after White discovered Morpeau, said tinted windows on Morpeau's vehicle might have been why parking attendants didn't see the man inside the SUV.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel.

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