So-called "dumpster diving" is an industry-wide problem, whether it's a child looking for a place to play, a transient looking for a place to sleep or a consumer looking for a bargain, Jackson said. It's very hard for a driver to see a person inside.

"This a front load truck. The driver doesn’t even get out. They'll pull up, connect the bars on the front of truck to the grooves on the side of the dumpster, and it goes straight up. It doesn’t tip until it's above their heads at the back of truck," she said.

The company has about 50 drivers who clean out the contents of approximately 100 dumpsters per day, she said. On a handful of occasions, she said, she's heard about drivers who connect their truck arms to the trash container only to have someone inside jump out and run away.

"I don’t know what the fix is," she said, adding: "The fix is, stay out of dumpsters. Pretty simple.”

Carter agreed, saying Perez is lucky to be alive.

"Do not play in (dumpsters), do not go into them, do not seek shelter in them, do not sleep in them," he said. “Those drivers don’t know.”

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