At just 7-years-old, Elias Quezada, a curious young boy, hid inside of a garbage can.
Shortly after, as the garbage truck arrived on his block, a sanitation worker spotted him quickly.
Elias wondered what the inside of a trash can looked like, so he climbed inside and closed the lid outside of his home in Tampa, Florida, reports Fox 13.
Moments later, the garbage truck came on the block when they picked up the bin with a mechanical arm and tossed it in the back. At the back of the truck was a garbage disposal with a blade.
“Yes [I was scared],” Elias said. “I felt like I was going to be a mashed potato.”
Elias’ grandmother Carmen Salazar was inside the home when she said she heard screaming. At first, she was worried that her grandson was hit by the truck.
Waldo Fidele, a sanitation worker, was behind the wheel and checked his surveillance video when he saw the little boy.
“It was a bad day for me,” Fidele said. “I was scared.”
Shawn Plunkett, operations manager for Waste Connections of Florida Operations in Tampa, said he is proud of Fidele.
“He’s truly a hero. If he hadn’t been paying close attention to the job, we would all be searching for a missing 7-year-old today,” Plunkett said. “Nobody would have ever known what happened to him.”
As for Elias, the young boy said that he has learned his lesson.
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