(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

A homeless man in Kamloops was lucky to escape major injury or death when the garbage bin he was sleeping in was picked up and dumped with him in it. 

Austin Kooistra said he “was in the wrong place at the wrong time” when he was dumped into the back of a garbage truck on Friday, Jan. 6.

“I had to climb out as the garbage was falling into a compartment where I would have been squished,” he said. “Then I used my leg strength to push me up to grab a rim and was crawling out and the guy (driver) noticed me.”

Kooistra, who got a deep cut on his forehead during the incident, said he had been sleeping in a garbage bin in a parking lot near Shaw Cable on the North Shore. After the incident, he walked barefoot to The Loop Outreach centre several blocks away where he ate and drank while he waited for paramedics to show up.

He was taken to Royal Inland Hospital for stitches.

“The bin sometimes has valuable parts in there. I was checking it and it started snowing so I set up in the dumpster,” he said. “I was in there for two nights, and by the time I fell asleep it was garbage day.”

It is not an uncommon scenario for homeless people to get dumped and risk getting compressed when they take refuge from rain and cold in garbage bins.

People have been crushed and injured, but in this case, the person got away with stitches.

Last month a man in West Kelowna survived getting dumped into the back of a garbage truck and at least two cycles of the vehicle’s compactor.

READ MORE: Man sleeping in West Kelowna dumpster survives being crushed in garbage truck

Members of the fire department were able to free the man. He had minor injuries to his feet and hands. He was hypothermic and was taken to the hospital, according to a media release by Kelowna RCMP.

“When the weather gets colder we sometimes see this happening as people seek shelter wherever they can,” Kelowna RCMP media relations officer Const. Mike Della-Paolera said in the release.

In April last year, a 52-year-old man succumbed to his injuries in Penticton after the dumpster he was sleeping in was dumped into the back of a recycling truck and then compacted.

READ MORE: Man crushed in recycling truck in Penticton has died

“I crawled into a dumpster to sleep just over a week ago,” said homeless man Andrew, who frequents The Loop. “I was cold and it was raining. It is warmer inside, protected from the wind and you sort of build a house around yourself with pieces of cardboard in there. It is kind of scary digging around in the garbage because you never know what you are going to find.”

It is unclear what company picked up the bin and who the driver was.

"I have not been made aware of this incident so I don't think this was a city truck," said streets and environmental services manager for the City of Kamloops, Glen Farrow. "This is a rare thing to happen and when it does we take these things very seriously. We like to remind people of the risk and be aware it can happen. If people walking by see this they can make the driver aware or try to get the person in the dumpster to get out." 

— This story was updated at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2022, to correct the spelling of Austin Kooistra's surname. 

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