GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — From outside of his hospital room, 70-year-old Danny Summey detailed his escape from inside the belly of a garbage truck.
He told 13 ON YOUR SIDE he's homeless by choice, and he needed a place to get out of the cold and rain last Friday.
He founded a dumpster near a Jimmy John's on 3 Mile Road and took refuge.
Soon, he fell asleep.
He woke up to the dumpster being lifted up and emptied into a garbage truck.
Summey said his leg got trapped, and he was unable to move even as more garbage kept piling on top of him inside the truck.
But then a bag of oranges rolled near him. He said in that moment, he decided instead of getting squeezed by more garbage, he decided to throw the oranges at the garbage truck driver to get his attention.
"And there's nothing you can do then, you just land on steel and everything lands on you and you're getting stirred around and then the floor comes back like a barn cleaner and crushes everything into the back," Summey said.
"So, I was trying to scoot up there to get out of it and had some kind of heavy bag on my leg. I couldn't pull it up, boots are caught. And I got one leg free and the other one crushed. This snap is a loud pop and bone crack. And then adds a couple more dumpster loads on me. The bag of oranges lands in my lap."
"And I said, well, have orange juice with myself squished? Or should I try to toss them out?"
That's exactly what he did. He tossed the oranges life gave him.
Thankfully that got the garbage driver's attention, and after he was pulled out of the garbage truck, he was taken to a hospital.
His leg was crushed and he had to have surgery. And soon he will start rehab.
Summey said oranges work great, but apples work in a pinch, too.
His biggest takeaway is that he wants others, especially young kids or teens who might play around dumpsters to stay out because they can be dangerous.
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