Police had to use olive oil to free a naked man who became trapped in a top-loading washing machine.

The unctuous intervention was part of a 20-minute rescue operation mounted in Mooroopna, Victoria, to pry the man from the hiding place he had planned to use to surprise his wife.

“He was very well wedged in there and we were concerned for his health and wellbeing,” Shepparton police sergeant Michelle De Araugo told Shepparton News.