Saved by Firefighter "Coffey:" Man searching for wife's dentures in Dunkin' Donuts dumpster...can't get out!

WAUKESHA (WITI) -- When a loved one needs help, you try to do whatever you can to lend a hand. A man in Waukesha went the extra mile for his wife, and ended up getting stuck in a dumpster!

A Waukesha firefighter tells FOX6 News after 19 years on the job, what happened at a Dunkin' Donuts came as a career first!

It's the story of a man saved by "coffee."

It all happened on the evening of September 23rd.

"That day, I was assigned to the ambulance," Joseph Coffey with the Waukesha Fire Department said.

At the Dunkin ' Donuts on Grandview Boulevard, an elderly couple had been in earlier in the day and returned that night -- realizing they had left something important behind.

As it turned out, the woman had somehow misplaced her dentures. Thinking the teeth had been pitched, her husband wanted to search the garbage can inside the store, but the trash had already been taken to the dumpster out back. Despite a warning, and the icky factor, the man stepped onto some pallets and went into the dumpster.

That's where Joseph Coffey comes in.

"That`s what always makes our job diverse.  That`s what we do," Coffey said.

The elderly man couldn't get out of the dumpster, and Dunkin' Donuts workers called for help.

"We got there, put a few ladders in position and assisted the man out of the dumpster," Coffey said.

Coffey and city of Waukesha police went one step further.

"Once we got him out of the dumpster, we assisted him looking through the rest of the trash to find the item," Coffey said.

No dentures were found -- making for a crazy excursion that ended up having more bang than bite!

Coffey says firefighters don't mind helping out when it comes to lost items like this -- you're just encouraged to call the non-emergency line before you take a dumpster dive!