When I was just out of school I worked at a place that had a giant trash compactor (you could put kitchen appliances into it if you wanted to). We used to use it for our copious cardboard waste in the days before recycling. If you got overly ambitious and piled up too much cardboard it would just get hung up in the feeder area. Our solution was to wait until the compactor arm was all the way in and jump on the cardboard to free it up.
I had done this several times in a row and had gotten careless. I thought the compactor was extended when it was actually just coming open. I jumped on the pile of cardboard and, of course, I fell into the compactor. I heard the machine crunching through the cardboard and knew I had about 5 seconds. I was chin deep in the hole and as hard as I tried I couldn’t get any footing in all the loose cardboard.
About that time two co-workers came along to dump their own trash and saw me. One of them ran to grab my hand and the other went to hit the EPO. I shook for about 5 minutes and thanked those guys over and over.
I didn’t tell my wife about it for about 20 years.
Holy Smokes! THAT story gave me the willies...
You must have gotten a flashback the first time you saw the trash compactor scene in Star Wars.
What a horrifying tale.