A Woman Was Dropped Down a Trash Chute

Photo by Siow Jian Ming on Flickr/Creative Commons

A Salem man accidentally dropped his keys on Monday, resulting in a neighbor’s broken leg. What occurred between the key-dropping and the leg-breaking is—simply put—puzzling.

Police say 19-year-old Zuriel Pujols was taking out the trash at the Loring Towers apartment complex around 5 a.m. when his keys became stuck in the trash bag. The keys then went down the trash chute with the bag. Pujols decided to enlist the help of his neighbor, 38-year-old Nelia Linatopi, to get them back.

He offered Linatopi $20 to retrieve the keys from the chute, and she agreed. First, Pujols lowered Linatopi in the chute by her feet, but when she couldn’t reach the keys, he had a better idea. He then tied a sheet around her leg to lower her once more. This time, the sheet broke, and Linatopi fell three stories down the chute and into the trash compactor. When she landed in the compactor, it turned on and broke her leg.

Boston.com reports that Linatopi’s leg was badly twisted in the wrong direction. She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

“The person who lost the key could have just asked the office for a new key,” a resident of Loring Towers told WCVB. “They make keys here.”

Linatopi is expected to recover.