He got his van back from police weeks after being shot. He found a corpse inside

After three robbers shot a man in his van in Memphis, Tennessee, police towed the van to an impound lot.

When the owner showed up to claim his vehicle on Monday after more than a month in the hospital, he found a body in the back, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Police believe the dead man, who had suffered a gunshot wound, also was hit during the failed robbery on Dec. 18. It’s not clear why police didn’t find the body sooner.

“It’s kind of a shock for me,” the owner, identified only as Pablo, told WHBQ. “I still can’t believe what happened.”

He told the station that he wonders whether the man’s life could have been saved if police had found him sooner.

“This incident is unacceptable and should never have happened,” Michael Rallings, director of the police department, told The Memphis Commercial Appeal. “The victims deserve better, the family members of the victims deserve better and our citizens deserve better.”

The 47-year-old driver and a second man, 55, were inside the van when three men approached and tried to rob them, police told WATN. When they refused to cooperate, the robbers opened fire, critically injuring the driver and missing the passenger.

Officers soon lost track of the second man and were only able to talk to the hospitalized driver on Jan. 22, when they say he told them only he and the 55-year-old were in the van at the time of the shooting. But the driver told WHBQ that he told police three people were in the van, not two. That will be part of the internal investigation into the incident, Rallings told WHBQ.

The identity of the third man, found Monday in the van, has not been released, according to WATN. “We will get to the bottom of this,” Rallings said.

The three robbery suspects have not been found.

This story was originally published February 7, 2018 at 1:13 PM with the headline "He got his van back from police weeks after being shot. He found a corpse inside."