Truck drivers discover man sleeping in bin

By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Nov. 29, 2003


The operators of a Canadian Waste Management garbage truck were startled Friday morning when they inadvertently dumped a sleeping man into their truck.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were called out to the area of Lougheed and Holdom at around 5 a.m. Friday, when the truck operators reported someone banging and shouting from the container on the back of their large green disposal truck.

"They had to use the boom from Engine 4 to gently lift the patient from the top of the truck to the ground," said Capt. Fred Scarfe of the Burnaby fire department.

While the victim is reported to have had only minor injuries, he was placed onto a backboard before being transported to hospital.

While Scarfe said this is the first he's heard of a homeless person being injured in a garbage disposal bin, he believes it may be happening more often.

"Nowadays, you do hear more stories about the homeless," Scarfe said. "You know, it's kind of sad. They're all over the place."

Grant Hankins, general manager of Canadian Waste Management, said incidents such as this are "not frequent," however, he did not have any details on this particular incident.

"These things don't happen every day," Hankins said. "But until we finish our investigation, I can't talk about it."

"What you should be looking at is a social problem and the number of people sleeping out in our communities," he said.