Close Call For Boy Pushed Into East Harlem Garbage Chute
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An 8-year-old boy avoided serious injury after tumbling several feet down a garbage chute.
His screams for help were heard by a Good Samaritan inside the East Harlem apartment complex on East 102nd Street, CBS2's Christina Fan reported Thursday.
The little boy was awake and alert as paramedics rolled away on a stretcher, his physical bruises nothing compared to the emotional trauma he just experienced.
"He was crying, he was nervous. I was trying to calm him down. Don't move and this and that because I was figuring maybe the compactor was on," Ray Melendez said.
Melendez was walking into the apartment complex Tuesday night when he noticed a kid sobbing by the refuse room. The child told him his friend had climbed inside the chute on the first floor, falling six to 10 feet into the basement's trash compactor.
Melendez said he immediately panicked.
"He would have been crushed. Not only that, lucky that nobody from the 8th floor, 9th floor, threw a garbage bag down and hit him on the head," Melendez said.
Fortunately, the compactor was turned off that night. Melendez was able to comfort the 8-year-old while calling 911.
"The parents have to be more careful in watching the kids, because they are innocent. They don't know what to do," neighbor Omar Diouf said.
The little boy escaped with just some minor cuts on his leg. His family said it was actually a friend who pushed him down the trash chute.
"It's a slide in. Somebody had to, like, help you get over that. I don't see a child throwing himself that hard to get over the lever. It's really impossible in my mind to do that by myself," neighbor Kadajia Hickman said.
Parents in the building said they're still scared by the close call. Melendez was most relieved.
"Thank God he's okay," he said.
Police said the Administration for Children's Services was notified, adding there were no arrests made.
