William M. Bowen, 27, awoke about 6:30 a.m. Thursday to find that he was inside a commercial trash-collection truck filled with waste.
A Rumpke garbage truck driver had emptied a bin behind the Muncie Eye Center into his truck and was about to activate its trash compressor when he heard someone screaming.
"He looked up and this gentleman was standing out the top of our truck," said Larry Green, market safety supervisor for Rumpke.
Green said the only thing Bowen said to the driver who found him was that he was cold.
"This gentleman was extremely intoxicated," he said.
Bowen told police the last thing he remembers before waking up in the truck was drinking with buddies about 3 a.m. Thursday at a Muncie bar.
Bowen, who wouldn't tell police who his drinking pals were, was treated and released with minor injuries from Ball Memorial Hospital.
Green said Bowen was lucky that wasn't seriously injured or killed in the trash compressor.
"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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Information from: The Star Press, http://www.thestarpress.com
