A man was crushed to death by a trash compactor after climbing into the garbage chute with the help of two people, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
The man’s body was found in a Brooklyn apartment building on Gates Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood at around 4:00 a.m. on Friday.
Surveillance footage reportedly shows the man entering the garbage chute while being assisted by two people who appear to be a man and a woman. After the man enters the chute, they hold a phone flashlight to give him light, presumably to light up the dark space, the New York Post reported.
Fifteen minutes later, the man’s mutilated body was found dead in the compactor. He was believed to be in his 50s, PIX 11 reported.
Police have not yet determined why the man entered the garbage chute, although some neighbors speculated he may have been attempting to retrieve his keys.
“Why would you go get your keys in the incinerator?” A resident of the building told the Post.
“I’d leave them down there, wait for maintenance to come or get another pair made. … I dropped my keys in an incinerator one time and I left them there,” the resident added.
It is also unknown if the man who died was a resident of the building.
The incident does not appear to be criminally motivated, as the man climbed into the chute of his own accord, police said via the New York Daily News.
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