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WEST ORANGE — An allegedly intoxicated man had a chance to get a ride home from his wife but ended up crawling in the ceiling of a store, passing out and getting a ride to jail instead, police said.

West Orange Assistant Chief Jesse Romero said an officer approached a possibly intoxicated male Sunday night at Porky’s Convenience Store on Texas 87 in West Orange and detected the smell of an alcoholic beverage on the man and saw an open beer car inside the man’s vehicle.

The officer tried to find the man a way home, and the man called his wife. While waiting for his wife to arrive, the man asked the officer if he could use the restroom at the store and was told “yes.”

But the man did not come out for a long time, according to Romero, so the officer called for the fire department to bring a ladder.

The officer began checking the ceiling tiles and found the man passed out on top of the beer cooler area, police said.

Instead of riding home with his wife, the man, identified as Marlon Carabantes-Lopez, 40, of the Orangefield area, was arrested and brought to jail for public intoxication.

Carabantes-Lopez was booked at 9:50 p.m. and bonded out the following morning at 10 a.m. on a $400 bond, Romero said.