A B.C. man says he’s lucky to be alive after he and his dog were scooped up by a recycling truck while they were taking shelter in a dumpster during last month’s cold weather.
“I should have landed on my head,” Greg Pickard told Global News in an interview after he picked up his pet Shanda from the SPCA on Thursday.
“I should have been dead and the dog, it was just a miracle we’re both here and able to walk.”
Pickard, 53, and his Staffordshire terrier were reunited days after their brush with death.
The pair is currently living unhoused in Courtenay on Vancouver Island. When temperatures dropped on the night of Oct. 27, they found a recycling bin for cardboard and decided to sleep in it.
“It was perfect, it didn’t look full,” Pickard recalled. “I put the cardboard around steel and (Shanda) just curled up (and was) snoring away right.”
The following morning, Pickard awoke suddenly after hearing a loud noise, and that he landed on his left hip when a recycling truck picked up and emptied the bin he and his dog were in.
“The next thing I know – Bang! … and up we go,” he said. “(The truck) is jostling me around all of a sudden (we’re) at the top of the truck. I looked down and it’s empty.”
Because the truck was not full, the impact of the fall was worse – but Pickard said the driver also did not activate the ‘crush’ function to compact the load.
“I don’t know what’s (happened)… I think I’m going to be killed here so I was smashing on the side of the truck yelling as loud as I can,” he said.
After the truck driver backed away from the bin, Pickard said a bystander noticed what had happened and alerted the driver.
“Someone came out and yelled, ‘Hey, hey! – you’ve got somebody in the back, there’s somebody in your truck,’” Pickard said.
The driver immediately stopped and unlatched the rear, telling Pickard he needed an ambulance.
At the same time, Pickard said he spotted Shanda hidden in the bin.
“She was just in the corner with all this cardboard on her but she was standing on four legs.”
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When Pickard managed to get the cardboard off of his dog, he noticed she had blood dripping from her chin.
Both Pickard and the dog were able to walk out of the dumpster.
Shanda received stitches at the SPCA for a split lip and will require medication for the next few weeks. Pickard was treated in hospital where he said a two-inch bar was placed in his hip as “all the blood vessels are smashed.”
Pickard, who is a certified glazer and licensed to work on furnaces and heat pumps, said his life took an unexpected turn during the COVID-19 pandemic when he suffered heart issues.
He said he’s trying to get housing with the goal of obtaining work installing heat pumps again – but there are currently few places to go in Courtenay when temperatures dip.
Meantime, Pickard is grateful for the person who heard him banging inside the truck.
“I was just so thankful, I mean my hand was swollen for three days after banging on the thing,” he said. “It was scary, I’ll never (sleep in a bin) again.”
RCMP in Courtenay confirmed a 53-year-old man had been injured in a recycling bin incident and was take to hospital with minor injuries. Police also confirmed the man’s dog was treated at a BC SPCA facility.
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