Body of 32-year-old Cambridge man found in donation bin
CAMBRIDGE — A man was found dead in the chute of a donation clothing bin on Thursday.
At 8 a.m., police, paramedics and the fire department were called to a parking lot at 256 Hespeler Rd., near Can-Amera Parkway in Cambridge, for a report of a man who was in a Diabetes Canada donation clothing bin.
Rick Coach, a Cambridge resident who was walking to an appointment with his wife, said he saw “legs sticking out of the box.” He went into a nearby building and alerted staff and said emergency services arrived shortly after.
“When we arrived we found a person with no vital signs that was trapped in the hatch going into a clothing bin,” said Brad Churchill, acting platoon chief at the Cambridge Fire Department.
Using hand tools and the Jaws of Life, it took six fire fighters 18 minutes to get the man out.
The 32-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene, said Waterloo Regional Police.
The coroner as well as identification unit detectives were called to the scene to investigate.
The body was sent to Hamilton for autopsy, and a cause of death has not been released.
Churchill said the Cambridge Fire Department has been to calls in the past where people have gone into bins and been trapped, but he can’t recall ever responding to a call such as this one. “It’s very sad,” he said. “We would always remind people not to go into places that aren’t normally meant for occupancy by humans.”
Deaths in donation bins have been reported in other cities in Canada. Media outlets reported in July that a woman in her 30s climbed into a bin in Vancouver and died of her injuries. Similarly, a man died in 2017 in Calgary, another person died in 2016 in Surrey, B.C., and another died in 2015 in Pitt Meadows, B.C.