A girl ended up in a real-life Toy Story plot after bin men rescued her stuffed animals when they were accidentally thrown out.
Imogen Wright, five, was devastated after her dad wrongly dumped her two rabbits in the bin, echoing the fate of Woody’s pals in the Disney Pixar film.
But the kindly waste collectors spent the day wading through the recycling rubbish and reunited Imogen with her beloved toys.
Mum Carolyn, 36, from Lancaster, Lancashire, said: “Imogen had been making a cardboard house for her rabbits and had kept them in there overnight.
"But her dad obviously didn’t realise the toys were in there and threw them in the recycling bin. By the time we realised, it was too late.”
Carolyn and her husband Steve, 42 – who also have daughter Lucie, 8 – raced after the truck and asked the collectors to look out for Imogen’s toys.
Carolyn explained: “Imogen was worried sick all day. She kept saying: ‘Do you think they’re lost forever? Do you think they’ve fallen out of the van? Are they going to fall into the machine?’ It really was like a real-life Toy Story plot.”
In Toy Story 3, characters including Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Rex and Mr Potato Head are accidentally put in a bin bag which ends up being thrown into a garbage truck, but they eventually manage to escape.
The Wrights also had a happy ending when they got a call saying workers had found the bunnies after rifling through the truck before it hit the depot.
Carolyn said: “We are so indebted to the recycling men.
“She was very shy when she met them but I could tell she was so relieved by the look on her face. She said to me afterwards: ‘I felt so sad all day.’”
A spokesman for Lancaster City Council said: “Our recycling crew starred in their own episode of Toy Story today when a resident asked us if they could help find his daughter’s favourite teddy that had mistakenly been put in the recycling box and taken.
“The teddy is now on its way home.”
