Taco Bell Crime of the Week!

A homeless man sleeping in a restaurant recycling bin was nearly killed when the container was emptied into an Allied Waste Management truck for compacting, police said.

The man, who has not been identified, was in a large recycling bin full of cardboard boxes behind Taco Bell at 34525 Alvarado Niles Road early Monday. He and the boxes on which he was sleeping were dumped into the recycling truck via the truck's automated pick-up mechanism, said Union City police Lt. Kelly Musgrove.

But before the Allied employee hit the compact button, he heard a man screaming and banging from inside the truck, the lieutenant said.

"He's lucky the employee was not listening to loud music," Musgrove said of the homeless man, who was not injured.