A 40-year-old garbage collector in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi tragically lost his life after being shot by a loaded gun that had been thrown away in a plastic garbage bag.

Imagine living in a place where gun crime is so high that people casually throw loaded firearms in garbage cans where they can literally kill garbage collectors. One such incident took place on October 16, near the Rioverde town hall, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. A group of garbage collectors was doing their jobs when tragedy struck. One of the men was calmly picking up garbage bags and throwing them into the back of a garbage truck when suddenly a gun went off. His colleagues froze in place and then started looking around for assailants, but there was no danger in sight. Then, they saw the man lying on the pavement…

Photo: Ewoud Van den Branden

Upon realizing that one of their own had been shot, the other garbage men called emergency services, but even though an ambulance arrived only a few minutes later, the man succumbed to his gunshot wound shortly after being taken to the Rioverde Medical Center.

According to Mexican newspaper El Universal, the man’s death was caused by a bullet fired from a loaded gun discarded into one of the garbage bags he was collecting. experts believe that the gun’s trigger was accidentally pushed when the garbage bag was thrown into the truck. Unfortunately, the barrel was pointed directly at the garbage worker and he got shot.

Photo: Tom Def/Unsplash

Authorities are still investigating this case in hopes of finding the gun’s owner and bringing them to justice for disposing of it so irresponsibly.