A 55-year-old transient had to be rescued from a trash truck in Santa Ana Thursday when he climbed into the vehicle to retrieve some of his belongings and got stuck inside.
“He (the driver) comes out and sees a male entering the rear portion of the truck where the trash goes,” said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. “Once you get in, you can’t get out.”
If the driver had not seen the man, it’s possible he would have been caught in the compactor and the driver wouldn’t have heard anything over the vehicle’s machinations, according to Bertagna and Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.
The trash truck driver was on his usual morning doughnut and coffee break before beginning his route when he called for help about 7:45 a.m. at Bristol Street and Santa Ana Boulevard, Concialdi said.
When first-responders got to the scene, the homeless man did not want to come out without his belongings, which he said were thrown away, Bertagna said.
A firefighter climbed into the trash area and finally convinced the man – – whose name was withheld — that he would help him get his possessions out of the truck, Concialdi said.
The driver handed up the belongings to other firefighters and officers and then helped the transient out of the truck with the aid of a ladder that was dropped into it.
“It was an awful smell in there, and he was down there for quite some time trying to convince (the transient) to climb up,” Concialdi said.
“I looked at the stuff the guys retrieved for him and it certainly was not worth losing your life over,” Bertagna said.
The man was OK and did not need medical treatment.
—City News Service