Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Dead Woman Receives a Parking Ticket

Let's file this one under the "I'm Not Making This Up" category.

A woman received a $30 ticket for parking her pickup truck outside the emergency room at UAB Hospital in Birmingham yesterday.

The woman, it turned out, had a good excuse for not moving her truck for about eight hours: She was dead.

At about 11:30 a.m. yesterday, about an hour after a Birmingham Parking Authority employee had placed a ticket on the truck's windshield, a passerby noticed Rebecca Kate Haley's body slumped over the steering wheel and notified authorities.

Haley, 25, had been dead at least eight hours, authorities said.

One news report said the parking worker did not notice anyone in the truck. Another report said the worker noticed Haley but thought she was asleep. Either way, you've got to be impressed with the human touch meter readers bring to the job.

What about UAB and its highly regarded medical center? I don't think the university is going to be using this story in its public-relations material. Imagine the headline: "Woman is dead for eight hours outside our emergency room; no one notices!"

This story hits us personally here at Legal Schnauzer. In the days before I was unlawfully terminated at UAB, I used to walk by the ER all the time. That's because it was on the way to one of my favorite lunch spots--Qdoba's Mexican Grill. (Have you tried the chicken fajita burrito at Qdoba's? Muy bueno!)

If I hadn't been cheated out of my job, I might have been walking by the ER at about 11:30 yesterday. Of course, with my mind on Qdoba's, I might not have been much help. Not sure I would have noticed a dead body, even if it had been on the sidewalk.

(By the way, several former coworkers have told me that a number of restaurants in the UAB area have gone out of business since I was terminated last May. I never realized it, but maybe I was a one-man stimulus package for the eateries in the UAB area. Hope my friends at Qdoba's are doing OK.)

Police still are trying to figure out how Haley died.

4 comments:

Matt Osborne said...

What a bizarre story. I wonder what she died of?

That meter maid must be a master of the oblivious...

legalschnauzer said...

Good questions.

The Bham News article says drug paraphenalia was found in the vehicle.

Someone at al.com posted this report from Trussville Police Department. Sounds like she might have had a number of problems:

http://www.trussvillepd.org/jail/inmates/50EC1A46-35BB-40C8-A3C5-7C8D57AF3270/

Anonymous said...

I knew Rebecca. I wish her truck was pulled up further and completely blocking the entrance. Then, and only then, could she have (maybe) received the assistance she needed. She overdosed. Someone dumped her there, not wanting to leave their name nor any answers to the dozen questions still out there. Case closed.

Rebecca fought a terrible, drug addiction and lived a life full of bad decisions ~ ending her young life with a fatal one. Her exit was not a surprise to many of us who knew her. We had always hoped for her to overcome her adversities.

RIP Rebecca Weed (As I knew her.)

Guy Silver Rikard A.K.A Gabbi Silvers said...

my name is guy silver rikard aka "gabbi silvers" becca was a very and dear friend of mine,... i know becca very well she could not "hit herself" some one overdosed her she was murderd i know theis for a fact also the guys fingerprints that was in the car he has never been found.. as far as i know i went to schoo with her and her brother i partited with her soe one did this to her
ALSO YE SHE DI HAVE PROBLEMS INCLUDING THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND while he was next to her....
i am kinda hurt that anypone who know her and loved her would place a comment here and do it anon how chicken shit. i am a addicit in recovery as of now.. and have been battling addition myself for years... growing up gay in the south is torture... and BECCA WAS ONE OF THE VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO LOVED ME
i will love and miss her until eterity she is a treu freind...


i am sorry for my typing and such i am crying and miss her badly
ttfn