A New York City bakery worker has been found dead inside a walk-in freezer after he was accidentally locked inside overnight.
Co-workers found Mahamadou Dansogo, 33, lifeless at the Beigel’s bakery in Brooklyn on Thursday morning.
He had only starting working for the company a few months before.
Dansogo was an immigrant from Africa, according to the New York Daily News, and reportedly got trapped while cleaning out the freezer in the early hours.
The victim had no visible trauma to his body, police said.
“This guy just come to the United States,” his uncle Tidiane Wague told local reporters.
“He tries to do like everybody else, to have a better life. He loves his job, he comes to work every day.”
The company’s manager David Greenberger made a statement outside his business.
“We are devastated by the loss of our employee in this accident,” Greenberg said.
“The family has been notified and we extended our deepest condolences to them.
“Grief counsellors are on the site to provide counselling and support to the family and to our employees.
“This is an ongoing situation and we are cooperating with all investigations. We have no further comment at this time.”
The local business, founded in the owners’ hometown of Krakow, Poland, in 1934, became famous in recent years for its black-and-white cookies and its whoopie pies.
The bakery was closed off with police tape on Thursday.
The force confirmed that their investigation is underway as they try to determine how Dansogo came to be locked inside the freezer.
I keep reading about Africans who come here, do stupid shit & end up dead.
Every walk-in freezer can be opened from the inside even if locked. That has been required for decades. I’ve been working on walk-ins for over 50 years and have never seen this requirement missing. Big, big lawsuit on this one.