AMSTERDAM (January 4, 2013)—A 76-year-old man in Amsterdam lost his lottery ticket and then got lost under a pile of trash in an effort to retrieve it, authorities said.

The man feared he had tossed out his lottery ticket along with some other used paper, so he went to an underground waste paper container to see if he could fetch it, officials said.

But he ended up trapped in the trash.

Passers-by heard his cries for help and called the police.

Firefighters freed him.

He did not find the lottery ticket, however.