Police believe electrical problem may have locked him inside car 
 
 The man has been identified as James Rogers, 72, of Port Arthur. (Photo: KBMT / family photo) 
 
 PORT ARTHUR, Texas -- A Port Arthur man took his last breath in what he considered to be his dream car. 72-year-old James Rogers and his dog Leia got trapped inside his 2007 Corvette Monday afternoon. 
 
 Police believe heat exhaustion eventually killed the two. 
 
 Rogers' daughter Tricia Hernandez says her it's heartbreaking that his dream car ended up taking his life. 
 
 The freak accident happened in the parking lot of the Waffle House on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard in Port Arthur, where Rogers was a regular. M.J. Ponsegrau, another regular. was called to the scene by employees to try to get Rogers and his dog out. 
 
 Photos: Man dies after being trapped in car 
 
 But Ponsegrau says the two were already dead. 
 
 Mike Flash, owner of Corvette Specialties, told 12News that the 2007 Corvette has a manual release located on the floorboard by the driver's seat. But Rogers did not know that. 
 
 Ponsegrau says Rogers was not the only one unaware of that. He says he, along with first responders, also struggled finding away to get Rogers o out of the car. 
 
 Ponsegrau says eventually firefighters had to break the window. 
 
 He said, "There's is a way to get in, but it's not common knowledge." 
 
 Hernandez says police believe her dad made a valiant effort to escape, and possibly died while looking through the car's manual. He could not call for help because he had left his phone inside Waffle House. 
 
 As strange as the accident seems, 12News has learned it's not isolated. We spoke to a Groves man named Isabel Moreno. Moreno told us he owned a 2006 Corvette, and one day he got trapped inside of it in his garage, when the battery went out. 
 
 Fortunately he says in his case, after awhile the battery started recharging itself enough to be able to roll the window down, and he was eventually able to get out safely. 
 
 Rogers funeral will be at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, June 11, 2015 at Levingston Funeral Home in Groves with Reverend D. Stephen McCrate officiating. 
 
 A visitation for family and friends will be held on Thursday evening from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. at the funeral home. 
 
 Rogers is survived by three children and five grandchildren. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://on.khou.com/1JF1g4m ||||| Port Arthur man, dog die after being trapped in car 
 
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 A Port Arthur man and his dog died Monday in a maddening and tragic accident after an electronic malfunction trapped them in his recently purchased 2007 Corvette, a car without manual door locks. 
 
 Police believe James Rogers, a 72-year-old Port Arthur man, and his Shih Tzu, "Baby Girl" Leia, died of heat exhaustion after Rogers used tools to try to pry himself from the vehicle and attempted to get the attention of passersby at the Waffle House parking lot on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard. 
 
 Rogers got to Waffle House to have his usual, daily cup of coffee at about 8 a.m. and went to check on his dog at 11:55 a.m., said Maj. Raymond Clark with the Port Arthur Police Department. 
 
 Rogers left his cell phone charging inside the restaurant. 
 
 Investigators suspect that an unsecured cable became loose when Rogers got in the car and shut the door, causing the Corvette to lose power. 
 
 That disabled the locks and horn, Clark said. 
 
 Police found fingerprints on the window, leading them to believe he tried to get someone's attention. 
 
 Since the car was new to Rogers, he was probably unaware of a door release on the floor next to each seat, a function listed in the 2007 Corvette manual. 
 
 
 
 A representative from Corvette Specialists, a Beaumont Corvette maintenance facility, said a 2007 Corvette is no different from a Chevrolet Impala, Ford Mustang or any other car manufactured at that time. 
 
 
 
 An autopsy will be performed to determine Roger's exact cause of death. 
 
 Rogers was a Thomas Jefferson High School grad and a U.S. Army veteran. A visitation from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday will precede a 7 p.m. funeral at Levingston Funeral Home in Groves. 
 
 MHeath@BeaumontEnterprise.com 
 
 Twitter.com/mheath31 ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 A used car salesman was killed when a red Corvette crashed during a test drive in Ontario, and the prospective car buyer was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter Tuesday afternoon, police said. 
 
 A fatal crash occurred about 12:45 p.m. near the CarMax at 4100 Inland Empire Blvd., Sgt. Jeff Higbee of the Ontario Police Department confirmed to KTLA. 
 
 A 28-year-old from Union City, Alex Demetro, was driving the vehicle when the car struck a tree, killing the 43-year-old male passenger, the salesman, Higbee said. 
 
 Witnesses said the Chevrolet Corvette was being driven at a high rate of speed, and the driver lost control before crashing into a tree, a police news release stated. 
 
 Several people who witnessed the crash -- on Mercedes Lane south of Councours Street, a couple blocks from the CarMax -- told KTLA the Corvette was going at least 70 mph. 
 
 Demetro was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence of drugs. Police did not say if he was injured. 
 
 The suspect was not believed to have been under the influence of alcohol, but investigators were looking at whether drugs were a contributing factor, Higbee said. 
 
 The victim, identified by co-workers as 43-year-old Warren Smale, was transported in critical condition to San Antonio Regional Hospital, where he died. 
 
 "It's a part of our job, the test drives," co-worker Lydia Garrett said. "I know Warren ... he probably had no clue, I'm sure." 
 
 A number of co-workers gathered at the crash site Tuesday night, where they remembered Smale as fun-loving and full of life. 
 
 "He was the guy at work that it didn't matter what kind of day you were having, he was there for you," Garrett said. "He would make you laugh. He would make you smile." 
 
 Kerissa Schartner heard the crash and went outside, where she saw Smale still in the passenger seat and Demetro sitting on the ground holding his shoulder. 
 
 "I think he was probably shocked," Kerissa Schartner said. 
 
 Cellphone video from a witness showed the victim being removed from the car. 
 
 Broken glass and debris was left at the scene Tuesday evening, and the tree that the Corvette struck had deep gouges in its bark. 
 
 "It kind of made me realize life is very fragile," said witness Paul Romo. "That guy had no idea today would be his last day when he showed up to work today." 
 
 CarMax spokeswoman Catherine Gryp issued a statement calling the loss "an incredibly sad day for the CarMax family." 
 
 "Our hearts and prayers go out to our associate's family. CarMax is working closely with the authorities on the investigation," the statement read. 
 
 KTLA's Scott Williams contributed to this article. 
 
 Correction: The name of a witness was misspelled in an earlier version of this story. It has been corrected. 
 
 Please enable Javascript to watch this video ||||| BMW logos are displayed on a production line in Berlin. Reuters 
 
 This post has been updated since it was first published. See note below. 
 
 China’s Internet has lit up with debate this week after reports of a mother who left her young son alone in her BMW – then refused to smash the luxury car’s windows in order to rescue him from the heat. 
 
 The mother, who has not been named in Chinese news reports, has since denied that she opposed smashing the window and says that she tried to break it herself, to no avail. 
 
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 The incident took place last Saturday night, when firefighters in the city of Yiwu in coastal Zhejiang province received a call alerting them that a child was locked inside a BMW, according to the Zhejiang Online provincial news site. 
 
 When the firefighters arrived, they found a young boy sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, crying and prying at the glass, the report said, citing one of the rescuers. The child had already been trapped in the car for about an hour, it said, and two locksmiths were already at work trying to open the door, while a large crowd was gathered around watching. 
 
 According to Zhejiang Online, the firefighters began to negotiate with the child’s mother, who urged them to wait for the locksmiths to open the door. After several minutes they were still unsuccessful, and the crowd began to condemn the mother. Finally, the report said, the firefighters insisted on smashing the glass, saving the frightened child. 
 
 Days after the initial report, the mother told the Qianjiang Evening News that the incident had been misunderstood. In an interview published Wednesday, she said that she had tried to break the window using a stone and hammer, and then called the police after her efforts failed. She maintained that she had hoped the locksmiths could open the door as the breaking glass could frighten or injure her 17-month-old son trapped inside. 
 
 The Hangzhou-based newspaper also quoted a firefighter who defended the mother and said the confusion could have arisen because she “didn’t say anything” when he initially asked for permission to break the window. 
 
 Photos posted online by the website showed large crowds of onlookers blocking a main street as they gathered around a fire engine and the black luxury car. 
 
 On China’s Weibo microblogs – where reports of the incident had received more than 7.6 million views as of Thursday afternoon – users responded with fury to the initial report, with many arguing that the mother’s behavior was an example of values gone awry in modern China. 
 
 “It’s clear that for this mother, a car is more important than her child,” one Weibo user wrote. 
 
 “Leaving a child trapped in a car on such a hot summer day, and then refusing to smash the window? Do you really want your child to suffocate?” wrote another. 
 
 Remarked another: “If you encounter this kind of situation, the answer is simple: First smash up the parents, then smash the glass.” 
 
 After the mother’s defense, however, some users directed their rage at the media, arguing that the tale was only the latest case of a news story being blown out of proportion. 
 
 “Some journalists know that ‘Dog Bites Man’ isn’t really news, so they try to rewrite it as ‘Man Bites Dog,’” one Weibo user wrote Thursday morning. “In the end they just cause a big stir.” 
 
 China has experienced dazzling economic growth in recent years, and with it has come soul-searching over whether public values have now shifted toward the pursuit of material wealth at any cost. 
 
 Owners of glitzy cars have become a particular scourge, with 80% of respondents in a Hurun Research Institute survey last year saying that they had heard negative news reports involving drivers of luxury vehicles. 70% of the bad publicity was related to BMW owners, the survey said. 
 
 –Felicia Sonmez. Follow her on Twitter @feliciasonmez. 
 
 (Note: This post has been updated to include comments from the mother and local rescuers in news reports published Wednesday, and subsequent reactions among social media users.) 
 
 Sign up for CRT’s daily newsletter to get the latest headlines by email. 
 
 
 
 For the latest news and analysis, follow @ChinaRealTime
– The 2007 Corvette has an emergency door-release handle on the floor by each seat, according to the manual—and if he had known that, 72-year-old Texas man James Rogers would probably be alive today. The Port Arthur resident died along with his pet Shih Tzu in a Waffle House parking lot on Monday after becoming trapped in the car, apparently because of an electrical problem, KHOU reports. Police believe the vehicle lost power to the locks and horn because of a loose battery cable and that Rogers and his dog died of heat exhaustion after he was unable to escape the vehicle or attract the attention of passers-by, reports the Beaumont Enterprise. Rogers, who had recently purchased the vehicle, left his cellphone charging inside the restaurant while he went to check on his dog and was unable to call for help, police tell the Enterprise. After he was noticed inside the car, firefighters broke in but found Rogers and his dog were already dead, 12 News reports. His daughter tells KHOU that the Corvette was her father's dream car. She says she believes her father made every possible effort to escape and may have died while reading the car's manual. (A Utah woman who had a premonition found her husband trapped under a car.)