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Subscribe to RSSCHICAGO -- A 16-year-old boy fell to his death through a garbage chute late Monday in a Gold Coast high-rise, police said.
The teen apparently was doing chores when he plunged 46 stories through the building's trash chute. Police and fire officials were called just after 11 p.m. to Astor Condominiums on the 1500 block of North Astor Street.
The building is 48 stories tall.
Witnesses told NBCChicago the teen has a mental disability, and he was taking out the garbage when he may have slipped and somehow fell into the chute. The boy's body was found in the trash compactor in the basement, police said.
Read NBCChicago.com's story on teen's fatal fall
The family was devastated as they talked with police and firefighters in the lobby overnight.
Police said they are investigating the incident and how the boy fell. An autopsy will be performed later Tuesday.
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Leave a Comment:
just how pray tell does one go about "falling" into a garbage chute? most of these things are too small and have a hinged door that opens outward.......something fishy here, at the least i smell ......lawsuit.............
Why does everything have to result in a lawsuit??
I agree there are several unanswered questions, but can you at least wait till you have more information before screaming for the lawyers??
he wasn't saying they should sue but rather predicting they will.
I smell a murder. It is all but impossible to fall into a garbage shoot in a residential hi-rise.
you got it hatr, i sincerely hope your wrong devil, but that too was a "first thought" for myself. either way i simply don't see an "accident" here.....i hope we are both wrong.
ok, lets just say for a second the teen put garbage in the chute and it got stuck right at the opening of the main chute. he leans in enough to push down hard on the garbage and suddenly gives way as he is pushing hard on it and goes down with it. That or he was messing around with the wrong guy's girl and D'OH!!!
Yeah RwEvans, that's likely what happened, he was trying to clear a jam and it gave way. If I were more cynical I'd say someone tossed him in.
This is very odd.....Something just is not right with this "accident "
Yeah... like he was either put or thrown or shoved into that chute.
Sounds like the parents did it for the money. (Sarcasm)
Something is not right about this ...
It could be that someone pushed him down the chute. Perhaps a parent who could no longer deal with this poor kid's disabilities.
Hate to say it, or think it, but I'm willing to bet the parents were tired of having to deal with a special needs kid. I hope I'm wrong!
I thought I was being insensitive, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who is curious about how one accidentally falls down a garbage chute. I think even if one pushed too hard on a bag while trying to clear it, they wouldn't just cleanly topple in; those chutes aren't that large! Even a special needs kid would have a hell of a time doing it. Did he crawl in, or was he put in? I mean, I hope I'm wrong...but this is just odd.
OSHA will be all over this one.
Anyone stop to think that maybe a mentally handicapped kid saw the chute and thought that it would be a cool ride with a soft landing in the trash...like in any number of Hollywood movies?
Actually OSHA has no jurisdiction here. They can only regulate a workplace environment. So unless the kid was working for the buildings management company for example, then OSHA standards do not apply.
The truly frightening thing about this story is that the people commenting on it are likely a part of the juror pool. A few incredibly short paragraphs with absolutely no details and half the people here are already suspecting foul play. Thank God when we say "innocent until proven guilty" we aren't talking about being guilty in the court of public opinion.
ooops...uh oh...Ka Boom!
really??? you think the parents were tired of dealing with their child? from personal experience, i can tell you a parent would rather deal with the needs daily than have their child die. most people with special needs are the most innocent and sweetest people you will ever meet.
OSHA only investigates workplace accidents. The article states the poor kid was doing chores. I agree with other comments that the chute probably got stuck open and the kid leaned in. The article states that the teen suffered from a mental disability. Sad and tragic story.
Actually it could easily be an accident. He was a special needs child. He could have gotten something caught in the chute and reached in to get it - losing his balance. Depending on the size of the chute, he could have easily fallen to his death. How sad the first thing that comes to mind is that someone killed him.
My sympathy goes out to the family and friends of this young man.
The story said he was mentally challenged or retarded, maybe he thought he could use it as an express way to the basement? probably was attempting to dislodge something and when it freed up he went with it. or maybe he just could not resist the urge to try it out. the guy at the end of the hall told him it was a fun ride. if he landed head first it was a accident, if he landed feet first it was deliberate. Rip not a good way to go.
I don't know..maybe he tripped ... like that captain of that cruise ship did ;)
Hope they do a good job investigating this..when trip could be push/shove.
maybe he was playing. he was a retard.
Unfortunately, I don't think there is "more to this story" or that there was any dubious intent by any party involved (or not involved, as the case may be).
I have a younger brother with both mental and physical disabilities.. he once took a tumble out of a second story window because he wanted to be outside and go visit somebody. No thoughts of suicide, no concept of "this is going to hurt", not even a clue of where to go once he landed or how to get there, just the concept that the window was a portal to going outside, where he wanted to go at that moment.
Even without summary knowledge of the child or the degrees of severity of his diability - I would venture to guess that he performed the act independently, with the complete intention of going down the chute, and with absolutely no conceptual understanding of the consequences of doing so or what would be found at the bottom.
Children with mental disabilities literally do not think in the same manner as others, whether that's CP, autism, etc., they're wired differently and every child has a specific set of requirements for supervision. Although I wouldn't imagine the parents ever thought anything of their child taking out the garbage other than to be proud that he contributed to the household chores. Awful.
I'll say it because nobody else is: I'm sorry for the family's loss, and the teen's loss of life.
It didn't say whether he died from the fall or from the compactor. He might have survived the fall, and if so, that's a nasty way to go.
It could be any mental disability. He's old enough for schizophrenia...........or a serious developmental disorder. If he had the mind of a 2-3 year old, sure, he might have crawled in.
Or maybe the "mental disorder" was drug addiction.
Honestly, if these articles gave us the details, what would we discuss, right?
To all you mouth breathing, moronic idiots, how did you make thru life this far? Consider:
1.. This kid was mentally challenged, so don't place the same value system you have on him, you have no idea how he may have viewed his environment.
2. How large was the opening and the garbage chute: 2'x2', pretty tight, but 3'x3', big difference.
3. It stated he was doing chores, like cleaning up and disposing of garbage bags or other perhaps somewhat large items (boxes?). Do you suppose that one of those bags/items may have turned sideways at the top of the chute and become stuck there (when I was much younger, I worked some jobs where things like that happened). Now, worried he might be in trouble and could lose his job (remember his mental impairment), he has to lean in and dislodge this object, and in so doing may have pushed and pushed, leaning further in, until it came free, but which point he no longer had the object to stop him from falling, so down he went.
4. Some of you people are beyond defensible, you are demented and mean spirited, and should have lobotomies, and then the rest of your bodies shoved down a garbage chute and fed to the pigs (can that last part, I have too respect for pigs to do that).
5. NOW, if I get suspended by the fickle finger of moderation on this vine, as Tommy Lee Jones said in The Fugitive, "I don't care!!!". This needed to be said! ....and have a very good day!!!!
Roadhouse, uh, gee. Was it something we said?
Iamatthebeach...yes.....obviously the beach impairs the ability to connecting the dots.
Could be, Roadhouse, could be. But I'm wastin' away in Margaritaville. You might could use some time here. A little R&R, you know. You seem a bit hostile.
I work in construction. You can fall down a chute. Depends on the building, how big they are. I don't think there is even a standard for garbage chutes.
I guess you would have check the building codes. I would not surprised that he looked in and feel. Every day people fall out of multi storey buildings. Just because its not on the news, does not mean it does not happen.
This reminds me of work safety. I must of complained about a millions things where I have worked. The management label me as a trouble maker. Though I have never been injured at work. Then I have idiocy say ahh, its because you dont work or some other stupid remark.You don't go to work to die.
I was hoping the teen fell on a banking executive.
johny, Shoot. I hope lots of people read your comment through to the last line. :) lol
I forecast a ban on highrise garbage chutes as this is the second one in as many days.Might be the shortage of bullets is having this effect??
This is unreal. Just how large is the opening?
Also those doors are weighted and seal really good to keep the smell out.
FOUL PLAY?
I'm w/you on this. The openings are not that large, sometimes my garbage bags didn't really fit without me adjusting it. So, either he was playing around and thought it'd be a good idea or someone helped him take his last joy ride.
I don't know about trash chutes in high-rises, but I thought they would be an opening that a teen couldn't get into and a bit higher off the floor than one foot. I have seen ones on HGTV and they are certainly higher up off the floor than one foot. Maybe he thought it was a crawl space.
I have to think large enough to fit a large garbage bag. Say 2 or 3 feet square?
If they don't have them now, they will soon have cctv cameras in all the trash rooms. It would be a good idea, just for the possibility of muggings.
It's in Chicago. Did they say how many pieces the body was in when it hit the bottom?
You are a Dick I hope that one of your children never dies such a tragic death
Dave, I wish your mother swallowed!
hey chokeonmybell
leave dave alone
Hey imapillowbiter, why? So Dave can get back to bouncing his balls off your chin?
chokackinneck you women are all the same. You lose a conversation and you hide behind your feminine fantasies. nice work drag.
go wipe.
poor guy
I get the feeling that he was pushed down that chute.
Just a feeling.
Did you get that same feeling about Humpty Dumpty?
I'm sure the police could use your psychic abilities!
Oh, I love the shows Psych and The Mentalist.....good stuff
Christina...
Think about it. His disability didn't necessarily have anything to do with this and it could still be a tragic accident. Remember the kids riding the tops of elevators and jumping between shafts about 10 years ago, or how about the subway surfers riding the tops of the trains around the same time. It doesn't have to be that kind of crazy stuff either. How about bungee jumpers. I remember that I thought it would be a good ride in the 3 story apartment building chute when I was a kid. I decided it could be dangerous but I knew my mom would beat the cr*p out of me if I did. I'm so cautious I never broke a bone, knock on wood, but a little more hot blooded and I would have gone down that chute. (I found out later that it went into the building boiler, lucky me.)
i agree, 16 difficult years of helping a disabled child, did the parent's just look it all over and then snap?
46 STORIES. What a horror and the claustrophobia.
I live in the area and the boy had down syndrome, from what has been reported, and was quite popular with the other residents in the building. Other people in the building that were interviewed were commenting on how the boy could have even gotten inside because apparently it is quite difficult to crawl into the building's garbage chute. But where theres a will there is a way. A sad story.
Where's there's a will there's a relative.
Seems VERY suspicious to me.
I do recall reading this kid was "mentally disabled" and a teen. It's equally possible it simply seemed like a good idea to ride the trash slide - when it wasn't. "Mentally Enabled Persons" win Darwin Awards for less all the time.
I agree, the first thing I thought of after reading the entire story was that he want to slide down the chute thinking it would be fun. Too bad this had to happen.
It's also equally possible he thought he lost something and went after it. We don't know how severe his disability was. He may not have known the significance of danger.
This exactly.
or the parents didn't want the burdeon and did him in. poor kid
horrible regardless of the circumstances.
Well, if it's an accident, then it's very tragic. If foul play was at hand, then I hope justice is served. None of us really have enough details at the moment to really make a reasonable judgment. In my old building, the opening was large enough for a smaller-statured person to fall into it, but only if you sort of leaned down into it. I suppose something could have gotten stuck, and he used his foot to try to push it down, and that's when he fell, but it doesn't seem likely.
Fell into a vertically mounted chute? Come on now someone murdered this kid!
Don't worry, Nancy Grace is on the way there and will have somebody identified to hate - most likely Prez Bush!
Hey, don't be too harsh on Nancy. She's mad at the world because she's so freakin' weird looking. She can't help it. God was working on a nasty hangover the moment she was conceived.
I agree, it's odd. The garbage chute in 3 different buildings that I lived in was too narrow even for a standard-sized box, so I don't see how a human would fit. My shoulders are broader than the chute's opening! Most of the chutes are also set high (mine opens at about my chest's level), with a hinged door that is hard to keep open as it is. I don't know how you just slip in, unless he bent in to try to fix a jam in the chute and he is somehow very narrow and could fit in there. Poor kid.
Down the hole you go
Was this really an accident???
Boy, I bet he doesn't have the guts to do THAT again.
SPLAT!!!! OUCH
A child of God falls to his death, and this is your response? Iwill pray for the child, his parents, family and friends, and yes even you.
You'rel next Brooke.
Brooke you are a moron!!! Don't reproduce whatever you do.
Hey guys, leave Brooke alone! She's from Florida, the state that gives new meaning to "Special Needs" people!
Brooke...............You aren't even close to being funny. In fact, your remarks are tasteless, insensitive and just plain ignorant.
What a D-Bag Brooke
Dear Brooke I would happily breed with you. You have a sense of humour, unlike the rest of some of these people.
Thats the problem with you Americans - you take yourselves way TOO seriously. Assuming this little boy had a good nature and sense of humour - then he too may have laughed.
Don't get too serious about life.........
Oh and while I'm at it - get over the Jesus stuff too - You guys are way too heavy on that stuff!
Poor kid. RIP.
Chicago? Just Obama tuning up his senior health plan.
Well, contrary to what everyone seems to think, there is not always something sinister involved in accidents such as these. Let's wait and see what the investigation and autopsy turn up before making judgments, ok?
We don't know the physical size of the boy, but I have to agree with other comments posted! I don't believe the boy just fell into the garbarge shute! I smell homicide!!!!!
He lost a bet. You can't slide 46 floor in a garbage chute and walk away.
Not sure how to collect the $10.
I hope GEICO doesn't pick this up as a new commercial ---- "WEEEEE,, WEE"
Oompa, loompa, doopity doo...I guess he was a bad nut.
As one who has seen some hairy situations I can tell you,often truth is stranger than fiction.Death by misadventure maybe
Too much TV, everyone ends up in a laundry basket. What was that movie with the dudes doing the stupid stuff?
oh my word this is SOOO very sad