A 48-year-old man in Murcia, Spain climbed into a bin to take what he thought was a bag of old clothes. He then had to call for help when he couldn’t get out again.
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| Photo courtesy Local Police, Murcia |
Passersby called the police to the Vistabella neighborhood in Murcia recently after they heard the man yelling for help from inside the rubbish bin. He had squeezed through a small gap to get into the bin and became trapped as the bin has a tilting door mechanism, designed to prevent people from doing exactly what the man had done. This type of protection on the bins has become common practice in Spain after the country’s continuing economic crisis.
The man is reportedly of Romanian origins and survives on the streets and in homeless shelters in the city and he believed the bag in the bin contained old clothes being sent for recycling. Apparently, besides getting stuck in the bin, he was wrong in his assumptions. José Elias, a spokesman for the Murcia Local Police said on Twitter that they have no idea how he managed to get into the bin, while sharing photos of the incident.
Ayer agentes del GESC rescatan a un hombre que quedó atrapado en el interior de un contenedor soterrado en el Bº Vistabella. pic.twitter.com/eXBx3sPpUH— Policía Local Murcia (@MurciaPolicia) October 19, 2016
Reportedly police could not free the man and had to call council workers to open the container and get the man out. In total he spent around half an hour trapped in the rubbish bin but is believed to be unhurt by the experience.
According to The Local, the National Statistics Agency (INE) says that Murcia is one of the most poverty stricken regions in the country with 31 percent of the population at risk of poverty. Besides the tilting door mechanisms, other councils in Spain have introduced locks on the bins in an attempt to stop people from scavenging.
Source: The Local
Source: The Local
