The police had to be alerted when stunned locals in the town of Murcia, south-eastern Spain, heard a voice coming from a tiny rubbish bin. It turned out that there was a man inside, a Romanian, who had climbed in, apparently mistakenly, thinking it contained old clothes he could take.

According to reports, passers-by, who heard the man calling for help, initially ignored it, suspecting it was a candid camera stunt, but eventually somebody called the police, who turned up and confirmed that it wasn’t a stunt and that the man was indeed trapped in the bin.

When he explained that he was stuck, they tried to free him, but failed and in the end had to call in council staff to open the bin manually. This worked and the man was finally freed, without the need to call the local fire brigade.

The Police believe he was probably with an accomplice who would have kept watch outside, but ran off when his friend got stuck.