EAST PROVIDENCE — A local man was fatally stricken early yesterday after he broke into an apartment building, pried a flat-screen TV off the lobby wall and lugged the 75-pound set out to his car, the police said.

The 46-year-old man, whose name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, visited a relative at East Shore Apartments, on East Shore Circle off Wampanoag Trail, on Sunday night, according to Capt. Walter Barlow.

The man left but later returned and forced the main door of the building with a crowbar, Barlow said. He pulled the TV off the wall, cut the cable and took the set outside, the officer said.

Barlow said the man apparently became “distressed” by the exertion, compounded by heart, drug and alcohol problems as well as diabetes and recent visits to the hospital for pneumonia. He collapsed after starting his car.

The police were called at 7:05 a.m. and found his body in front of the complex — although obscured from most apartment windows — near a rock-and-stone wall. The car was still running.

Barlow said the man had been dead for “a while” given the condition of the body.

apina@projo.com