Not even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles experienced such a deadly adventure…
A turtle named Pee-wee miraculously escaped when he was caught in the garbage at a recycling center, where he was scooped up by an excavator, thrown through a hopper and passed through a glass crusher.
However, he emerged from the machine bloody but alive and was then pulled from a conveyor belt where garbage is manually sorted.
Forklift driver Paul Frost, 41, whose friend found the turtle, said: ‘I didn’t think it would survive as it was bleeding from cuts and scratches and a piece of its shell was missing.
“I took him home and my wife bathed him in warm water.
A turtle named Pee-wee miraculously escaped after falling into garbage at a recycling center
He was picked up by an excavator, thrown through a hopper and passed through a glass crusher, but emerged alive with a few cuts when someone spotted him
Pictured: a sign at the Mid-UK Recycling Center in Grantham, Lincolnshire
“He looked like he was smiling when she scrubbed his shell with a toothbrush, it was quite cute.
“We gave him some cucumber and he seemed to perk up and we knew everything would be fine.”
Paul’s wife Louise, 38, said: ‘He’s surprisingly fast for a turtle, but I have no idea how he managed to avoid all those dangers.
“It’s amazing he didn’t get injured more. We think someone may have accidentally thrown him away while he was hibernating, or maybe they decided they couldn’t care for him anymore and just threw him away, which is really sad.
Paul – nicknamed Doctor Dolittle by colleagues after he rescued three kittens from a recycling plant last year – said Pee-wee may have been sitting in a pile of rubbish for up to two months before he arrived at the Mid-UK Recycling Center in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 22 -ton shipment of waste.
How he managed to survive remains a mystery, and had he not been spotted, Pee-wee, Hermann’s turtle, would have ended up in the incinerator.
Pee-wee was taken home by Paul Frost, who works at the factory, and cared for by him and his wife Louise
Vet Sara Marchant, 55, manager of Kirks Vets in nearby Sleaford, is currently caring for Pee-wee.
She said: “He seems to be in good health. He is chipped, but the chip is not registered, so we cannot trace the owner.
“The recycling center collects rubbish from all over the country, so we don’t know where it came from. He is a very, very happy turtle and a sweet little creature.
Pee-wee will be under vet care for a while in case his owner comes forward, otherwise Paul and Louise will take him in.
