Workers search trash for personal treasure

Quick thinking Noosa Council waste staff and two Cleanaway workers have retrieved a wallet and car keys accidentally thrown away by a Logan man during a trip to Peregian Beach.

Michael Shannon and Carl Pay spent about 20 minutes digging through the contents of a garbage truck to find an orange cooler bag, containing a wallet and car keys.

“These guys are certainly employees of the month,” said a relieved Kylie Lowery

She noticed the missing cooler bag after returning home to Logan following a night out at a Pizzani Pizza restaurant in Peregian Beach last Monday night.

Ms Lowery, who owns a café in Loganlea, hired a 12-seater bus to bring her staff to her friend’s popular pizza eatery for a celebration. The wallet and keys in the cooler bag belonged to one of her staff attending the function.

“Prior to the trip home, my husband cleaned out the bus and because it was dark, mistakenly threw out the cooler bag with other rubbish such as bottles, wrappers and cans into the public kerbside bin near the restaurant.”

“We didn’t realise it had been thrown out until we had driven 110 kilometres and arrived back in Logan that night and one of my workers asked where her cooler bag was.

“I was horrified, so I got my friend to check the bin in Peregian Beach first thing the next morning, but it had already been emptied,” said Ms Lowery.

A frantic Kylie contacted Noosa Council Customer Service and spoke to operator Dawn Oliver quickly passed the information on to Waste Administration officer Juli Hoven.

Cleanaway were notified and jumped into action to see if the truck’s contents could be checked.

Cleanaway Operations Supervisor Michael Shannon said luckily the driver was on his break and hadn’t emptied his truck.

“It was one of the last bins emptied on his run, so we tipped out about a third of the truck’s contents at the Resource Recovery Centre and sifted through the rubbish and miraculously found the orange cooler bag,” he said.

“The bag was open, a bit smelly and slimy, but fortunately the wallet and keys weren’t too far away in the garbage so we managed to retrieve everything,” he said.

All the planets had certainly aligned for Kylie and her distraught husband, who were able to return the keys and wallet to their owner.

“Those two guys are awesome, and it is not something you would see a lot do to go out of their way for a complete stranger,” said a thankful Kylie.

“The whole experience was so pleasant, the council staff were so nice and accommodating,

“We’re so appreciative of them going above and beyond for us,” Kylie said.

Cleanaway Manager Garry Williamson praised the efforts of his staff.

“This is more the exception rather than the rule when something is accidentally dropped into a public bin, but I am tremendously proud of the quick response and efforts of Michael and Carl,” he said.