Trapped

I am going to just come right out and say this: getting trapped inside a clothing donation bin is weird.  I am also of a mind that getting stuck inside such a bin requires some level of effort.

Earlier this month, a 38-year-old woman in Paterson, New Jersey, was rescued from a clothing donation bin located behind an apartment building.  The unnamed woman was found in the bin after a passerby, walking near the building, heard calls for help.

The trapped woman said she had been inside the bin for close to three days.  According to the woman’s rescuers, once a person is inside the bin, it is nearly impossible to escape through the sliding deposit door.

Once rescued, the woman explained she had been reaching inside the bin and fell inside because someone pushed her from behind.

Authorities, however, found the woman’s story unlikely.  Police records indicated the woman had been rescued from clothing bins on two previous occasions.

Here in my home town of East Helena, Montana, we call donating yourself in clothing bins three times a pattern.  A strange one.

—Mitchell Hegman