Man found dead in car hours after it was ticketed

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 area near Pico Rivera.

A passerby noticed the man in the driver’s seat of the 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,” she 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.

Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter said the man was in his 70s. His identity has not been released because relatives have not been notified. The car was locked at the time the man was found, Winter said.

It was unclear how long the man had been dead or what has caused his death. Authorities plan an autopsy.

The case is being investigated by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives, which authorities said is routine given the circumstances. There were no obvious signs of foul play, sheriff’s officials said.

In December, an elderly woman was found in the front passenger seat of a crumpled car in a San Fernando Valley tow yard. The woman had been left in the car for a day after paramedics removed her son from the same vehicle after a crash.

joanna.lin@latimes.com