'Two seconds from death'

In the predawn darkness of a cold December morning, Vince "The Trashman" Bateman was making his rounds, driving his large Shawnee County trash truck through an alley near S.W. 6th and Tyler, just west of downtown Topeka.

It was around 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 5, a Wednesday. As was his practice, Bateman climbed out of his cab, removed a lock bar from the large, orange dumpster behind a building, then went back into his truck.

Within 30 seconds, two large, metal hydraulic forks would extend from the truck, entering slots on either side of the dumpster. The arms then would lift the dumpster above the cab of the truck, emptying its contents into the back of the vehicle. Bateman would push a button, crushing the contents to make room for more trash at the next pickup site.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that morning. But Bateman said he was paying close attention to the dumpster on this particular day.

Bateman said the Holy Spirit had told him to "be ready, be ready — watch the lid to this container."

As the dumpster was being raised, and with his eyes fixed on it, Bateman said something stopped him in his tracks.

"As I go to start bringing the container up," Bateman said, "a man's hand came out of the container. He grabbed the top lip of the container. The lids open up and the guy's hand came out."

Astounded by what he saw, Bateman stopped the dumpster as it was suspended above him. He quickly lowered it back to the ground.

Bateman said he realized a tragedy had been averted. Had he not seen the man's hand, the individual likely would have been crushed with the rest of the trash in the back of the truck.

"He was two seconds from death," Bateman said. "Two seconds from death."

After lowering the container back to the ground, Bateman said he got out of the truck and went up to the dumpster to check on the man, but "the guy was out of it." The man had his shoes off and had been sleeping in the container, Bateman said.

"I tried to have a conversation with him," Bateman said, "but he was totally out of it. He was worried about his shoes in the container. I said, 'You should be worried about your life because you about lost it.' "

While not commonplace, such incidents do happen at locations across the United States. In many cases, they have tragic consequences for the person taking refuge in the dumpster.

"This was a divine intervention from God," Bateman said, "because it was by God's divine mercy and grace he allowed this individual to live."

The man wouldn't get out of the dumpster, even after his brush with death. Bateman said the man did offer him some food from the dumpster as a way of saying thanks for not "dumping him in back of the truck."

As he drove away from the scene, Bateman said, he called his supervisor with Shawnee County Solid Waste to apprise him of what had just happened. Bateman then continued making his rounds, though he went back about four hours later to see if the man was still in the dumpster. By then, he said, the man was gone.

Since that incident, Bateman is a bit skittish every time he empties a dumpster. He knows the next one could have somebody sleeping in it, though to date he hasn't found anyone else inside a dumpster.

"It's always a big concern," he said. "I mean, there's so many homeless here in Topeka now."

Bateman said homeless people frequently cut the locks to dumpsters to look for food or to find a place to sleep for the night.

"They cut the locks all the time," Bateman said. "What they did on this container, someone must have cut the lock and must have crawled into the side of the container."

Curt Niehaus, director of public works and solid waste for Shawnee County, said Bateman "did everything he was supposed to do" that December morning.

Niehaus said the county's trash truck drivers are instructed to give the containers "a little jolt" before emptying them, to wake up anyone who might be sleeping in them.

Some local trash haulers say the problem of homeless people sleeping in dumpsters is a concern, particularly when weather turns cold. The haulers say they have encountered people who were taking shelter inside a dumpster and who were able to make it out safely before the container was emptied into the back of the trash truck.

Officials with Shawnee County Solid Waste said the issue of homeless people sleeping in dumpsters has become a "larger concern" across the nation, particularly when temperatures plummet.

However, besides the incident in December near S.W. 6th and Tyler, there have been no other reports of a Shawnee County Solid Waste employee finding anyone in a dumpster for at least the past two years.

Should drivers find anyone inside a dumpster, officials said, they are required to report the situation to their supervisor, who then is to complete an incident report.

Do you know of someone who has done something good in Topeka? Do you have a human interest story idea? We would like to hear from you. Send your ideas to Phil Anderson at panderson@cjonline.com or at The Topeka Capital-Journal, 100 S.E. 9th St., Topeka, KS 66612.