Drunken man awakes inside garbage truck

updated 5:55 a.m. ET March 31, 2008

MUNCIE, Ind. - William M. Bowen woke up after a night of drinking with friends and realized he was inside a commercial trash-collection truck full of waste.

The driver had just emptied a commercial trash bin into his truck and was about to activate its compactor when he heard Bowen screaming.

"He looked up and this gentleman was standing out the top of our truck," said Larry Green, market safety supervisor for the Rumpke waste disposal company. Green said the only thing Bowen said to the driver was that he was cold.

"This gentleman was extremely intoxicated," he said.

Bowen told police he had been drinking with buddies at a Muncie bar until about 3 a.m. Thursday. But he said he didn't recall how he ended up inside the trash bin, and he wouldn't tell police who his drinking pals were.

Bowen was treated for minor injuries.

"I'm just glad it turned out the way it did," Green said. "We didn't have a body that was dead. We had a body that was talking."

There was no telephone listing for Bowen in the Muncie area.

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