Dead Man Issued Parking Ticket in New York City - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Dead Man Issued Parking Ticket in New York City

A man who lay dead at the wheel of his SUV in Queens, N.Y., was hit with a parking ticket by a passing traffic cop, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

Investigators believe that 21-year-old Nicholas Rappold died from an apparent drug overdose at the wheel of his Jeep Cherokee Tuesday morning after he left a friend’s house.

"It's really messed up," Rappold’s cousin Patrick Hill told the Daily News. "While he was dead in his car, a New York City traffic agent gave him a ticket."

A ticket left on the windshield of the dead man’s SUV wrote him up for being illegally parked.

Police investigated the traffic cop responsible, but found no evidence of wrongdoing.

"He [Rappold] had heavily tinted windows," a police source told the New York Daily News. "It was hard to see inside," the source added.

Hill disputed that assertion.

"She could have at least knocked on the window to see if he was all right," he said.

According to the paper, police voided the ticket and released the SUV to the man's family when they discovered what had happened.