A 7-year-old Florida boy who was hiding inside a garbage can, is lucky to be alive after he was scooped up and dumped into a sanitation truck next to a trash compactor.
Elias Quezada escaped Tuesday’s petrifying ordeal without even a scratch, thanks to the very alert and heroic driver, NBC News reports.
Elias was playing outside his grandmother’s Hillsborough County house, when he said he decided to hide in her oversized garbage cans that were out for collection.
The garbage truck’s automatic claw scooped up the can and dumped the boy into the bed of the garbage filled vehicle – just inches from the active blade, according to the network’s WFLA affiliate.
“I got picked up and thrown to where I was going to be a mashed potato,” Elias said with a mischievous grin, adding he thought it was “the end” for him.
Thankfully, driver Waldo Fidele was closely watching the truck’s surveillance camera as it dumped the precious cargo in the back, according to the report.
Fidele immediately turned off the truck’s blade and called 911.
Carmen Salazar, Elias’ grandmother, said the boy was only outside for a few minutes when she heard the truck.
“I’m very thankful that he was looking at that camera at that time and he acted so fast,” Salazar said. “Because otherwise, he wouldn’t be here.”
“I come outside, I see him, he seemed happy,” Fidele said. “I said OK, you’re OK now.”
Fidele told WFLA he is trained to watch the back of the truck every time a can gets dumped in.