Sanitation workers search through trash to find lost wallet in UAE

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Sanitation workers in the United Arab Emirates sifted through more than 300 tons of garbage to find a wallet that had been thrown accidentally into the trash.

Louie Gabilagon, a senior manager for waste management company Bee'ah, said a healthcare worker from the Philippines contacted the business about 10 a.m. on Dec. 27 to report that her wallet accidentally ended up in a dumpster in Sharjah's Al Fayhaa area the previous night.

"Time was of the essence as several hours had passed. Based on the description of the locality, we located the truck that had hauled the dumpster to our transfer station in Industrial Area 12," Gabilagon told the Khaleej Times.

Gabilagon said workers had to sift through more than 300 tons of trash.

"It was such a massive stockpile that we had to bring in a wheeled excavator to spread the garbage so that the workers could sift through it. Eventually, one of them dug out the wallet and held it up like a prized trophy," he said.

The woman who had lost the wallet was on the scene when it was recovered.

"It was an emotional moment," Gablilagon said.

The New York Sanitation Department launched a similar effort last October to recover Patricia Turco's five photo albums, which had been put in the trash mistakenly by her niece's stepson.

The department identified the truck that had picked up the trash from the neighborhood, and sanitation supervisor Edward Clavelo searched through several bags of garbage before successfully reuniting Turco with her albums.