AN 18-year-old who got himself trapped head first in a rubbish bin in front of late night revellers in Melbourne has earned himself a new nickname - Oscar the grouch.

The hapless teen went rummaging in the bin early this morning when one of his friends threw his mobile phone into it, then couldn’t get out.

“He was trapped in the bin with his arm and head through the stainless steel top of the bin, a bit like a lobster trap,” said Peter Yeoman of the fire brigade’s rescue squad, which was called to St Kilda to free the young man.

Police, an ambulance crew and local firefighters all added to the 3.40am (AEST) spectacle for a large crowd, which soon built up on the busy bar strip of Fitzroy Street.

Firefighters unscrewed the stainless steel lid from the body of the bin and then tried unsuccessfully to free the man by lubricating his head to slide him out.

“He was just wearing it like a big Elizabethan collar - like a dog would have when it got its stitches out,” Mr Yeoman said.

The jaws of life would not cut through the marine grade stainless steel, so firefighters had to use an air powered hacksaw to cut him free.

From The Daily Telegraph