A 27-year-old man has been released from the hospital after accidentally being dumped into a garbage truck after a night of drinking in Southeast Portland, police said.

After deciding he was too intoxicated to drive home late Thursday, Justin Gilpatrick crawled into a cardboard recycling container to sleep after going to a bar near Mall 205 in the 10100 block of Southeast Washington Street.

A Waste Management recycling truck came by at about 3:45 a.m. Friday and emptied the container, with Gilpatrick still inside, into the hopper.

The items were then compacted twice before the driver noticed something was wrong and found Gilpatrick inside.

He was taken to an area hospital with minor injuries.

No criminal charges are expected to be filed.

"I have not had a drink in years and the one time I do this i(s) what happens," Gilpatrick wrote on his Facebook page on Friday. "I will never drink again."

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