A Georgia county, located within metropolitan Atlanta, took the time out to honor three sanitation workers who tossed off their work gloves and slipped on superheroes’ capes to save a young woman who accidentally was thrown into their trash truck.
The swift action of the DeKalb County workers saved the teenager’s life, who simply said she “fell asleep” in a garbage container before finding herself dumped in the truck.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, DeKalb County commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson publicly applauded ZahMontay Cherry, Richard Jones and Peter Williams for their good deed, presenting them with certificates of appreciation from the municipality, according to KIRO 7, for rescuing the 16-year-old girl.
The men were honored by Davis Johnson and her colleagues at the start of the county commission meeting. This was the first order of business for the board’s first in-person gathering since 2020, when the country went on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DeKalb County Police Department also celebrated the men, tweeting, “Today we applaud the efforts of Sanitation workers Cherry, Jones, and Williams who were able to save the life of a young lady who fell asleep in a trash container that was dumped into the garbage truck.”
“Without the attention and dedication of these employees,” the Twitter post continued, “there is no doubt great harm, if not death, would have been imminent. Great job Sanitation!”
Their boss, Tracy Hutchinson, CEO of DeKalb County Sanitation, explained what happened, saying, on Tuesday, Oct. 4, the men were on their usual route and performing their typical duties as sanitation workers.
Because their work truck has mechanical arms to lift each garbage can, neither of the men saw that there was a person inside one of the receptacles. However, once the curbside roller cart was dumped in the vehicle, the men said they “noticed someone’s hand protruding from the hopper,” reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The men initially thought the arm belonged to a dead person, but then it started “waving.”
The men stopped everything and notified law enforcement about their discovery, to make sure “the teenager received the care she needed,” before springing into action to save the teen themselves. By the time the police and the paramedics arrived on the scene, the Jane Doe was already rescued.
No information has been provided about the young lady or why she was asleep in the trash can, but reports confirm she is safe.
