MILWAUKEE, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A 14-year-old boy is miraculously alive after spending up to five hours trapped inside a recycling truck in Milwaukee, officials say.
Germantown police Lt. Brian Henning said the boy, whose identity was not released, was freed from the trash truck after several hours Tuesday and thankfully avoided suffering any life-threatening injuries, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.
Police said the teenager apparently had hidden inside a large trash container after running away from the Milwaukee Leadership Training Center, a teen center modeled after a military boot camp.
The trash container was then dumped into the recycling truck as part of a routine pickup and the boy became trapped for hours until Waste Management employees spotted him during the trash dumping process, police said.
Waste Management spokeswoman Lynn Morgan said the boy's discovery and the fact he is expected to survive is nothing short of a miracle.
"It was a very dangerous situation, and this is an incredibly fortunate outcome and a very, very lucky young man," Morgan told the Journal Sentinel.
