Clerk threw body he mistook for mannequin in bin

A front desk clerk at a Florida apartment complex has been fired after mistaking the body of a tenant for a mannequin and throwing it in a rubbish bin.

The Tampa Tribune reported that Ronald Benjamin, 61, told police he saw the body in the car park of the 16-storey St Petersburg apartment building and assumed someone had put a mannequin there as an April Fool’s Day prank.

A co-worker arrived and told him there was a body in the car park, but he insisted it was a mannequin. He got a newspaper carrier and her son to help him throw the body in the rubbish.