CA Homeless Man Mistakenly Tossed Into Trash Truck

SAN DIEGO, CA -- A San Diego man in December was accidentally scooped up into a garbage truck when city crews cleaned a homeless encampment, possibly prompting the city to discipline a senior official after news broke of the shocking accident. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the homeless man was almost killed in the "jaw-dropping blunder."

The accident reportedly happened on the morning of Dec. 22 when city workers were told to clear a tent in a downtown homeless encampment, the Union-Tribune reported.

"Presumably they thought the tent was filled with bedding and other discards," the newspaper reported. Witnesses told the Union-Tribune "arms started flailing" when the man quickly "scrambled out of a San Diego city trash truck."

The Union-Tribune said the clearing of homeless encampments involve police officers and code enforcement workers.

"Before the sidewalks are cleared, police are supposed to check any tents, lean-tos or other property for materials of worth — important papers, photographs, identification and the like. If an officer determines some of the property has value, it must be stored so the owners can claim their items. Once San Diego police complete their evaluation of abatement sites, code-enforcement teams are approved to clear the areas," the newspaper wrote.

News of the disturbing incident may have prompted the city to discipline Angela Colton, the city's deputy director of the Environmental Services Department, who is in charge of the "growing number of homeless encampments and tents that have cropped up throughout downtown San Diego," the Union-Tribune reported.

The Union-Tribune also reported the city announced new rules to prevent the incident from happening again. Supervisors will be on scene in the future and "code-compliance personnel will photograph all transient camps and waste to be collected before, during and after the cleanups."

--Patch file photo