People Are Getting Trapped in Garbage Trucks: 4+ Incidents So Far this Year

People are somehow ending up in garbage trucks and living to talk about it. It’s happened at least four times this year: in Florida, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Colorado.

On Jan. 9, someone was “launched” into a garbage truck in Escambia County, Miami Herald was first to report. Whoever it was had already been having a bad day, as he or she was inside a dumpster when it was emptied into the truck. “With the use of ladders inside the truck, firefighters were able to safely rescue the patient. Once secured, the patient was transported to an area hospital,” Escambia County Fire Rescue shared on Facebook.

A similar incident took place the same day in Mississippi. Local police and firefighters believed the man may have fallen asleep while rummaging through a dumpster. The truck came for garbage collection and the man got trapped, suffering a broken arm and leg.

On Jan. 29, a woman in New Hampshire “fell into a dumpster while throwing out her garbage,” AP News reported, and a garbage truck “compacted the contents while she was inside.” People nearby heard her screaming, and the driver also saw her through a camera, but by then, the driver “had reportedly compacted the garbage up to four times,” according to the Manchester Fire Department. She’s fine.

Finally, on Feb. 2, a man in Colorado was rescued from a garbage truck after the driver heard “moaning” from the truck’s container, Sentinel Colorado reported. It is not clear how the man got stuck, or how long he was in there for. “It is not known how long the patient was stuck,” Aurora Fire Rescue spokesman Shannon Hardi told Sentinel Colorado. “Once the trash truck driver called 911, AFR responded and worked quickly to extricate the individual safely.”