Man survives ride in garbage truck from Lubbock to Meadow landfill

MEADOW, Texas (KCBD) - An unidentified man is lucky to be alive after being found dumped in the Meadow landfill early Friday morning.

Terry County Sheriff Timothy Click said a Republic dump truck was bringing trash from Lubbock and pulled into the Meadow landfill to dump the garbage. People at the landfill saw “a body” come out of the truck with the garbage.

That is when the Terry County Sheriff’s Office was called.

One person at the landfill started recording on his phone, then saw the man stand up and walk out of the garbage.

Wayne Green, who works at the landfill told TownTalk Radio, “I was getting ready to run my compacter over the load just dumped when I saw this man start moving around. If I had not seen him when I did, I would have crushed him.”

Sheriff Click says the man was covered in garbage, and deputies began to question him. He told them he was living in the Executive Motel in Lubbock and somehow found himself in the dumpster behind a Little Caesars Pizza in Lubbock. He did not know which location. He also said he tried to get out of the dumpster, but it was locked. He said while he was in the dumpster, a dump truck loaded the trash from that dumpster and he went with it.

Sheriff Click says the man is lucky that dumpster was the last pickup before heading to the landfill, otherwise it would have been a very different outcome. He also says there was no lock found on the dumpster in their investigation.

Green told TownTalk Radio, “That man better go to church on Sunday because God saved him twice today. He should have been crushed in the dump truck and, if I had not seen him, I would have crushed him. God was watching out for him.”

It was a 40 minute ride in a full garbage truck.

The man refused medical treatment and Sheriff Click says a deputy took him back to Lubbock. Sheriff Click says no charges will be filed and there will not be any further investigation.

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