According to local media reports, the incident occurred Thursday at roughly 2 a.m. local time in the McKees Rocks borough of Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania. The dumpster was situated along Munson Avenue.
Crews operating the vehicle only realized what happened after the driver, who heard the man yelling from inside the truck, instructed them to cease operations. Law enforcement officials were subsequently called to the scene.
Despite the arrival of first responders, the unidentified man refused to get out of the truck because he wanted to first find his missing prosthetic leg.
"He was digging in the trash to find his prosthetic lower leg," McKees Rocks Fire Chief Nick Radoycis told news station WPXI. "He was digging through all the trash, and frankly making it worse at this point in time."
Police ordered the man out of the truck after he spent about 30 minutes searching for his prosthetic, to no avail. Although the man did not appear to be injured, he was transported to a nearby hospital for a full checkup.
The crew operating the dump truck informed authorities that they intend to empty the truck separately when it is taken to the landfill so that the search for the missing prosthetic can continue, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.