REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, April 23, 2014

NEIGHBOURS spoke of their grief after discovering the body of a man crushed underneath a car in his garage in Helensvale.

Police believed the man’s body had been there for more than 24 hours before it was discovered at about 5.25pm.

The man, a truck driver and car enthusiast in his 50s, was working under the car in his home garage in Latrobe Ave when the tragic accident happened.

Police were yet to work out whether there was a fault with the jack holding the car up, or whether there was human error involved.

A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said she first noticed the garage light had been left on and the garage door was open, about 5.30am.

“I noticed it was open but I just thought he was working on the car,” she said.

Later in the afternoon a man arrived with a parcel for the deceased man.

“I said, ‘He must be there as his garage door is open’, but the man couldn’t get hold of him, so I rang his mobile and left a message,” she said.

The neighbour eventually climbed the fence and found the man’s body.

“He was cold so he’s probably been there all night but I just feel awful that I didn’t look during the day,” she said.

She said the man was a “nice, friendly chap” who lived alone and kept to himself.

“He was always tinkering on the car – it was a hobby. He’s always had cars he was fiddling with. That’s why we didn’t think anything of it,” the neighbour said. A colleague also asked police to check on the man after he had not turned up for work.