Mystery surrounds how a man became trapped under tonnes of scrap metal inside an industrial bin in Geelong.
Victoria Police are reportedly investigating whether the incident may have been linked to a bikie clubhouse next door to Scrap Metal Merchants.
Owner Wayne Gill was opening his scrap yard about 8am on Tuesday when he found the man trapped under about three tonne of steel in a bin, with just his legs free.
"I could hear moaning and groaning, and sure enough there's a bloke in the scrap metal bin," he told reporters.
"All I could see were his legs inside the bin."
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It's understood the 52-year-old man had been lying under about three tonnes of scrap metal - including a bathtub weighing 100kg - since midnight.
He was found buried head first, with his legs protruding from the pile of scrap metal.
It took firefighters and SES crews about half an hour to free him so he could be taken to Geelong Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition with pelvic injuries.
The scrap yard owner doesn't know how the man ended up in his bin, which had been scheduled to go to Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon so its contents could be melted down in a furnace.
There's no way the man could have fallen into the bin, which had been full of scrap metal, Mr Gill said.
"It looks like it's been moved or whatever and he's fallen in, or was thrown in," he said.
The rescued man - who is from Warrnambool, some 200km from the bin - says it all happened while he was drunk.
"He said he had too much to drink last night, he had an argument with his wife, and ended up in the scrap metal bin," Mr Gill said.
"I said 'I find it a bit hard to believe, mate'."
Police are still investigating how the man ended up where he did.
"It's a little bit odd, the explanation that's been offered," Senior Sergeant Darren Murphy told Nine News.
