One Dropped Mountain Dew Became An Eight-Hour Rescue Mission
This man apparently did it all for the soda pop. An unidentified man in Kansas City, Missouri, spent roughly eight hours trapped inside a portable toilet’s waste tank before firefighters cut him free from thee most unfortunate beverage-retrieval mission imaginable.
According to Patriot Portable Restrooms, the company whose crew discovered him, the man told responders he had climbed into the tank to retrieve a Mountain Dew bottle he accidentally dropped the night before.
The portable toilets had been used for a World Cup-related event near East 17th Street and The Paseo. Workers were performing a routine inspection before removing the units when one stall remained locked and its occupant would not respond to repeated knocks.
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Company partner Chip Counterman said the crew gave a ten-minute warning before flagging down a passing Kansas City police officer. Once the door was forced open, the worker and officer initially saw what appeared to be an empty restroom.
Then a head rose from the toilet opening.
The man explained that he could not reach the door from inside the holding tank. With talking him out no longer an option, the Kansas City Fire Department arrived with handheld saws and began cutting through the plastic unit around him.
Video from the scene shows firefighters carefully dismantling the portable toilet while the trapped man waits beneath the seat. Once they created enough room, crews pulled him free and gave him a thorough rinse with water from a fire hose.
Counterman said the man claimed he had entered the tank the previous night, putting the ordeal at approximately eight hours. That means the rescue began as a routine restroom pickup and ended with emergency crews discovering somebody had spent the night in a sewage tank over a bottle of citrus soda.
The company’s later statement somehow made the original rescue footage even wilder. What first looked like an unexplained accident became a full account involving a dropped Mountain Dew, an overnight stay, a locked stall and the deeply cinematic moment when a head appeared from beneath the closed toilet lid.
We respect commitment, but some refreshments must be allowed to go gentle into that good night. No soda—limited edition, ice cold or otherwise—is worth climbing into a portable toilet tank.
Watch Firefighters Cut The Man Out Of The Portable Toilet
The rescue footage shows Kansas City crews cutting through the portable toilet while the man waits beneath its seat.
Hear The Portable-Restroom Company Explain What Happened
Patriot Portable Restrooms’ account explains how a routine inspection led workers to the locked unit—and the unexpected face beneath its toilet lid.
Here’s a statement from the port-a-pot company regarding the man that was found inside one of their toilets.
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) July 16, 2026
It gets even worse than you imagined. 😳 pic.twitter.com/u0xeK3STIT
Source: Patriot Portable Restrooms; Kansas City Fire Department; The National News Desk.
