A Palatine man was crushed to death in a trash compactor as he searched for his missing cell phone, authorities said.



Roger Mirro, 56, told a neighbor in his apartment complex around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday that he may have dropped his phone down the garbage chute, authorities said. Mirro asked for a key to the trash room in the lower level parking garage, they said.



Around 3 1/2 hours later, police got a call from Mirro's wife saying he was missing, Deputy Police Chief Alan Stoeckel said in a statement.



The woman said she last spoke with her husband by phone as she left work around 5 p.m., telling him she was going out with her friends, police said.



She got back to the apartment in the 200 block of South Clubhouse Drive around 9:30 p.m. but couldn't find her husband, police said.