One New Jersey dad went as far as dumpster-diving to help his 13-year-old son find his lost cellphone.
Ethan Roncace lost his phone Monday after having thrown it away at his high school in Haddon Township, according to NBC news affiliate WCAU.
“How far do you go to find your son’s iPhone? Yes, dumpster-diving. Oh, I mean extreme dumpster-diving at the Covanta Incinerator Plant in Camden, N.J. This was real-life Toy Story 3 experience.” Ethan’s mom, Deborah Roncace wrote in a Facebook post.
The family managed to track down Ethan’s cellphone with an app.
“It wasn’t until the next day that the phone was showing on our app — that it was moving” Ethan’s dad, Craig Roncace, told WCAU.
When they got to the dumping site, Craig suited up and dove right into the mound of trash.
“As long as we can identify the truck when it comes to our inbound scale, we’ve got a little bit better than 50 per cent success rate,” Rich Harrington, Covanta staff, told WCAU.
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The pile of garbage is reportedly 260 ft.-long, 50 ft.-high 25 ft.-deep, and weighs several thousand tons.
But that didn’t top Ethan’s dad from finding this needle in a haystack.
Surprisingly, it only took 30 minutes of digging around to find the phone.
“I didn’t really think this was actually real. I just thought it was in the movies,” Ethan said.
Ethan thanked the site workers for letting him find his phone.
“The phrase ‘teamwork’ is perfect for this because everybody worked together to get an outcome, ” Larry Lapidus, Waste Management, told WCAU.
When Ethan got his phone back, it was still in good working order.
“Craig was the hero of the day in Ethan’s eyes,” his mom wrote in a Facebook post.