A man just got rescued from a toilet tank after trying to retrieve a friend’s smartphone

But that’s exactly what happened to Cato Berntsen Larsen’s friend in Norway recently, leaving the poor fella staring hopelessly into the darkness of a filthy, stinking pit wondering if he’d ever see his mobile device again.

Cato, seemingly intent on taking the definition of “true friend” to a whole new level, kindly volunteered to enter the smelly void to see if he could get his buddy’s phone back. Apparently, the pair concluded that Cato was the slimmer of the two, so would more easily squeeze through the hole of the toilet bowl.

So, in a scene presumably reminiscent of that memorable moment in Trainspotting, into the festering tank of rotting human discharge Cato went. Trouble was, he couldn’t get out again.

“I was obviously slim enough to get into it, but not slim enough to get out,” Cato told local news outlet VG.

The tank, which according to the BBC is emptied only four times a year, was reportedly “thigh deep” in excreta. And as if the situation couldn’t get any worse for Cato, the stench was so vile it caused him to throw up.

After an hour of stomping about in the filth, firefighters rescued the 20-year-old Norwegian by cutting away the entire toilet bowl and hauling him out. He was then taken to hospital and put on a course of antibiotics.

“It was disgusting as hell, the worst thing I have ever experienced,” Cato said later. “Animals were down there too … now my body hurts.”

Clearly a master of understatement, Cato described the experience in the tank as “very unpleasant,” adding rather sensibly that he will “never enter a toilet again.”

Oh, and as for the phone, Cato couldn’t find it. Just hope his friend didn’t kick up a stink about it.