This is almost too wierd to be true:

The fire chief of San Marcos is defending paramedics who returned a dead man to an apartment and left the cadaver on the living room floor while the man's daughter waited at the hospital.

Paramedics found Kenneth Collet, 58, in full cardiac arrest Oct. 6. His daughter, Natalie Collet, 36, and landlord, Denise Dougherty, 41, locked the apartment and drove to Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside to meet the ambulance.

Collet was pronounced dead en route to the hospital, and the San Diego County medical examiner waived authority of the body because the circumstances of the death were not unusual, said San Marcos Fire Chief Larry Webb. The examiner directed the paramedics to return the body to the house without the permission of the women or their presence.

According to Webb, a fire captain pried open a window and allowed paramedics to place the body on a rug in the center of the living room.

Webb apologized Tuesday for the circumstances, but he said the situation was handled appropriately.

I kept looking at the article date, expecting to see 04/01.