A routine pickup of portable restrooms following a World Cup event in Kansas City turned into an hours-long rescue operation on July 14, 2026, after a man was discovered trapped inside the tank of a portable toilet.
According to Chip Counterman, a partner at Patriot Portable Restrooms in Kansas City, a crew arrived to collect units from the event site and found one restroom locked. Workers knocked and gave the occupant a 10-minute warning to exit. When they returned after finishing the rest of the pickup, the man inside still refused to come out.
A police officer on a motorcycle happened to pass by and was flagged down by the crew. When the officer opened the door, the restroom appeared completely empty — the toilet lid was closed and no one was in sight.
Moments later, a head emerged from inside the toilet tank itself. “I’m in here,” the man said.
The Kansas City Fire Department was called in and also struggled to convince the man to exit on his own. When asked why he’d climbed into the tank, he explained he had been trying to retrieve a Mountain Dew bottle he’d dropped in the night before. If true, that meant he had been trapped inside for roughly eight hours.
Firefighters ultimately had to cut the unit open to free him. Once out, he was given a hose-down using water from the fire truck.
Counterman thanked the Kansas City Police and Fire Departments for their assistance in resolving the bizarre situation, closing with a simple piece of advice: watch out for falling into toilets.