An inebriated man in Chongqing mislaid his car for nearly three months and then found it after he had bought a new one, Chongqing Times reported on Monday.

The 40-year-old man, surnamed Chen, drank too much alcohol at a dinner with friends on the night of Aug 1 and took a taxi home because he was unable to drive.

Next morning, he could not remember what had happened to his car. It was not in his garage, but the key was in his pocket. He decided that his car must have been stolen and reported it to the police.

Two months passed and Chen bought a new car costing around 200,000 yuan ($32,870).

Then on Oct 25, he received a phone call from police saying that his car had been found in a public garage near the restaurant where he had dinner with his friends.

Chen remembered that on the fateful night he had asked the taxi driver to move his car to the garage for temporary storage, planning to collect it the next morning.

Luckily, a worker at the garage had noticed that the car had not moved for three months and reported it to the police, who were able to trace it back to Chen using the license number.