A flash drive containing personal and financial details of a city's half-million residents has been found after a worker in Japan lost it amid a night of drinking

• A flash drive containing sensitive data about a Japanese city's residents was briefly lost last week.
• A city contractor reported the drive missing after he went for drinks and fell asleep in the street.

What once was lost has now been found.

Last week, a contractor working for the Japanese city of Amagasaki, near Osaka, told authorities that he had misplaced a USB flash drive containing sensitive details about the city's 460,000 residents following a night of drinking, according to NHK News.

The worker was employed at a company that was helping the city pay out pandemic aid to hard-hit residents. NHK reported the data was copied without permission and included names, addresses, birthdates, taxes, and welfare benefits information of all the city's residents.

The worker reportedly put the drive containing the data in his bag and went to a restaurant Tuesday evening where he had an unspecified amount of alcohol. He then fell asleep in the street and woke to find his bag and the drive were missing.

After searching on Wednesday, he filed a missing property report and his employer notified authorities about the loss, CNN reported, citing an official statement.

At a press conference Thursday, the city's mayor and other representatives apologized to residents for the breach, CNN reported.

Later that day, the employee returned with police to the area where he thought he lost the bag, and the bag was found, NHK reported Friday.