NORTHEASTERN Indiana police said a Noble County man was lucky to be alive after being compacted inside a garbage truck — twice.

　　U.S. police said Chad Dillon, 24, of Avilla apparently fell asleep in a trash bin that was picked up Friday by a garbage truck in Auburn, a city about 48 km north of Fort Wayne.

　　Witnesses told police they heard screaming inside the back of a Waste Management garbage truck as the driver was collecting trash at the DeKalb County Fairgrounds.

　　Auburn Police Chief Martin McCoy said the driver told officers he did not hear Dillon’s calls for help and had crushed the trash in the back of the garbage truck twice before bystanders alerted him to the screams.

　　After being pulled from the garbage truck, Dillon was taken to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. He was treated for head, chest and arm injuries and released later Friday, hospital officials said.

　　Although Dillon could not remember where he had been prior to ending up in the back of the garbage truck, he told police he had been out drinking at a local bar the night before, McCoy said.  (SD-Agencies)