A homeless scavenger searching for scrap metal in Brooklyn made a grisly discovery when he opened a garbage bag and found a man’s corpse inside, police sources said.
The unidentified scavenger, who had been hunting for recyclable materials, spotted the stuffed trash bag outside a church in Canarsie on Saturday morning, according to authorities and sources. He dragged the sack down the block to the corner of East 93rd Street and Avenue L, where he opened it around 9:20 a.m. And uncovered the body.
Along with the deceased man, the trash bag contained wires and pieces of scrap metal, sources said.
Members of the city’s Sanitation Department called 911 to report the unsettling find, prompting officers to respond to the scene. First responders arrived and pronounced the man dead at the location, cops said.
The city medical examiner’s office will determine the man’s cause of death, police said. The identity of the deceased had not been released as of Saturday.
The discovery rattled the normally quiet residential corner in southeastern Brooklyn, where churches and single-family homes line the streets. Canarsie, a waterfront neighborhood that has seen gradual demographic shifts in recent decades, is not typically associated with violent crime scenes of this nature.
The scavenger’s routine morning search for scrap took a dark turn when he decided to transport the bag from its original position outside the church. What appeared to be a routine haul of discarded metal and wiring instead yielded a human body, turning an ordinary act of urban survival into a police investigation.
The NYPD has not disclosed whether the deceased man showed any visible signs of trauma or how long the body may have been inside the garbage bag. Investigators were working to identify the man and trace his last known movements.
The medical examiner’s determination of cause of death will be crucial in shaping the direction of the investigation, as police seek to establish whether the man died of natural causes, suicide, homicide, or other circumstances.
The case draws attention to the precarious existence of New York’s homeless population, who routinely comb through discarded materials for items of value. Scavengers, known colloquially as “canners” or scrappers, traverse the city at early hours collecting bottles, cans, and metal to trade for cash at recycling centers.
Saturday’s discovery marked the second time in recent months that a homeless New Yorker has stumbled upon human remains while conducting routine searches through the city’s refuse. Such incidents underscore the overlapping worlds of urban poverty and violent death that can intersect on otherwise unremarkable street corners.
Police have made no arrests in connection with the discovery and have not named any suspects. The investigation remains active as detectives await the medical examiner’s findings and work to identify the deceased.
The garbage bag and its contents have been removed from the scene as evidence. Investigators will examine the wires and scrap metal found alongside the body for any potential connection to the deceased or to the circumstances of his death.