Garbage collector thinks he has found a doll: What it really is makes him burst into tears
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) - A garbage collector from Brazil became a hero on Tuesday. What he found next to a garbage can caused relief and outrage in equal measure.
Samuel da Silva dos Santos was out and about on the streets of Rio de Janeiro with his colleague Anderson Mendes Nunes. Together they were looking for recyclable waste.
At around 2 a.m., the men made a discovery that quickly made them famous far beyond the city limits of Rio.
A baby was lying in a box next to a garbage can, wrapped in a pink blanket among the rubble and ashes. The little girl, completely helpless, was lucky that the two garbage collectors turned the corner.
"That's very moving, because she's a warrior after all. She was born again," said dos Santos later that day, with tears streaming down his face, in an interview with the AFP news agency.
Garbage man from Rio first thought he had found a doll
The fact that he would find a baby in the garbage was not on dos Santos' mind. Not even when he lifted the small bundle of cloth from the box on the ground and placed it in his hands.
At first he thought it was a doll, says the bin man. Suddenly, however, "the little creature" opened its eyes and the Brazilian realized what he had discovered.
Together with his colleague, dos Santos reported his find to the local health service and later handed the baby over to the doctors. After an examination, they reported that the girl was in a "stable" condition. Everyone involved breathed a sigh of relief.
Nevertheless, tempers flared on the internet . After dos Santos' story went viral, many people wondered how someone could be capable of simply abandoning a baby like that.
The Rio police are now trying to establish the identity of the baby and hope to find out who simply dumped the girl like garbage.