Home > Crime > Woman Dies After Getting Trapped Inside Clothing Drop Box

Woman Dies After Getting Trapped Inside Clothing Drop Box

March 11, 2012 at 10:45 am by Morbid

Staten Island, NY — Police say a New York woman suffocated inside a clothing drop box after she climbed inside to steal donated clothing.

Yesterday around noon, 51-year-old Melissa Mazzeo climbed into the large metal box located on the side of Victory Superette and Bagels. When she tried to get out, karma paid a visit and the box’s door swung down on her neck.

A witness heard Mazzeo’s screams and ran inside the bagel shop for help. When one of the shop’s employees went out to assist, he found poor Mazzeo unresponsive with her head and hands sticking outside the box.

“Two hands and a head, that’s it, just out the door,” the man said. “Not a sight to see.”

Mazzeo must have really been wedged in there because she stayed that way for a few hours. Neither police or rescue workers were able to free her until someone came and removed the lock.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said Mazzeo has a history of stealing clothing from the donation boxes and often had a shopping cart and a hook she used to remove the donated clothes. She also had a court appearance in May regarding her arrested for attempted petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Her neighbors say she was a troubled woman who often argued with other people on her block. They described her as eccentric, and say she would often dig through trash and leave items she’d scavenged on her lawn.

Tags: Crime, donation box, Melissa Mazzeo, New York, Theft

62 Comments

Comments

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Miss_Ann_thrope

It strikes me as funny that “they” decided to wait until someone could remove the lock rather than just cut through the lock . . .
http://www.dreamindemon.com Morbid

No need to ruin a perfectly good lock.
Lena60

Hard to feel bad about someone like this,stealing is never agood ideah and it seems she made ahabit ourtmof it. Morbid, did you see the story on the young black woman beaten and abducted at the train station? It was all caught on video.Hard to watch.
JGo555

The thing is they would’ve given her those articles in other places.

My town aka. Vandals & Thieves’ Paradise has had this problem too. They have broken into the donations from the Sally An. & stole some, others have completely destroyed them. The place has now put up a fence and security cameras to stop people FROM STEALING FROM THE POOR.
http://www.facebook.com/dre.mosley Dre Mosley

And the latest Darwin Award goes to. . . . .
newstarshipsmell

Whoever designed and/or manufactured that drop box deserves a fuckin’ medal.
LeaveMeBe

Shop ’til you drop…now I get it.
PlaysWithBalls

I’ve been looking for motivation to sort out my closet and get rid of my old clothes, and I’d say using it as bait for a klepto-booby trap is as good a reason as any.
neenaP

The box should be easier to open a child could climb in. I dont think she deserved to die for trying to steal used clothes.
http://justiceforcaylee.synthasite.com/ shyloh

Sniffle. I feel sorry for the woman. No Really! I never thought of shopping for clothes in a DROP BOX, the largest store where I live is Walmart! That’s just wrong. But it’s true. And a tornado blew it apart a couple of weeks ago. Now that’s sad. Now that I know I could lose my life in a drop box. I don’t think I want to take the chance. At least a Tornado would blow me away from the crime scene.
Lena60

No it shouldn’t, that would defeat the purpose of having one.
newstarshipsmell

The box is fine as-is. Should it serve to thwart bad, inattentive parents’ genes from spreading, so much the better.

There’s plenty of fucking morons who get themselves featured here on DD that didn’t honestly deserve the end they came to, but that doesn’t change the fact that had they not been intentionally doing wrong, they could have steered clear of trouble. I will continue to point and laugh at them with everyone else here.
JohnQknowitall

The woman was troubled (i.e., nuts?). She dug through the trash and stole free clothing from bins. If she was indeed poor and needed the clothing is that a bad thing?

If she hadn’t eaten in days and stole a loaf of bread would she be a bad person?
newstarshipsmell

Not “free” clothing, clothing donated by others to be given to people in need of it. Considering her criminal record for theft and setup with shopping cart and hook, it sounds like she was probably hoarding way more than she needed, if she even needed any of it. Comparing this to stealing a loaf of bread while starving… I can’t even comment.
JohnQknowitall

I don’t know her conviction rate. Do you?

I am just stupid enough to think that true charity has no limits.

BTW your last comment about the bread is indeed a comment.
newstarshipsmell

“A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said Mazzeo has a history of stealing clothing from the donation boxes and often had a shopping cart and a hook she used to remove the donated clothes”
It sounds like she has gotten plenty of clothes in the past, and probably didn’t need more.

Your analogy is pretty piss-poor. A better one would be to compare her to someone who goes hungry routinely, and, rather than eating at food pantries, repeatedly breaks in to them and steals whatever she wants in disregard for the other people who come there to ease their own hunger. It doesn’t really make any sense, but then, she’s crazy, apparently, and probably had no relatives or friends to look out for her.

Anyways, she proved to be a problem that solved itself.
JohnQknowitall

What is her conviction rate? Tell me this or your argument is piss poor.
lespacino

I don’t know whether to like this comment or not. None of that sounds pleasant. I hope you and your loved ones were all spared the tornado devastation.
lespacino

I’ve heard people say they were “dying” to get new clothes, but this seems a bit extreme- and for used clothes at that!
lespacino

I don’t know where drop boxes are usually located, but around here they are usually at the back of some shopping plazas parking lot- far from the building entrance. They seem to be set up for you to drive, stop, dump, and leave. I’m trying to figure out why a kid would be by one in the first place. If they are, they’re probably gonna end up dead due to some other form of parental neglect anyway.

Just in case, though, maybe we should put a tv, video game system, snacks, drinks, and restroom facilities inside them, so the kids can be comfortable and entertained until help arrives. They should also increase the size of the openings for those claw machines, so that when kids climb in to steal toys, they can climb back out more easily.
PhantasmaGora

That video was crazy. I cant believe that happened so publicly and no one was able to stop it. Sad…
Eliza Berntsen

Where’s the video for it?
Eliza Berntsen

Thou shalt not steal!
EveryVillainIsLemons

Stealing from the poor is pretty damned low. It’s sad that she died, but she was doing something stupid. Her death could have been prevented, and if she needed clothing so damned badly, she could have gone to the charity for help. Odds are good that she was looking for good stuff to resell if she had a history of doing this, though.
newstarshipsmell

No, sorry but it isn’t. You compared her history of theft to some one-time act of desperation. Your insistence that I research exact numbers on how many times she has been arrested for this same act (not even covering the number of times she likely did it without getting caught), when the NYPD statement makes it clear she has done this before, multiple times, is ridiculous.
newstarshipsmell

No, sorry but it isn’t. You compared her history of theft to some one-time act of desperation. Your insistence that I research exact numbers on how many times she has been arrested for this same act (not even covering the number of times she likely did it without getting caught), when the NYPD statement makes it clear she has done this before, multiple times, is ridiculous.
newstarshipsmell

No, sorry but it isn’t. You compared her history of theft to some one-time act of desperation. Your insistence that I research exact numbers on how many times she has been arrested for this same act (not even covering the number of times she likely did it without getting caught), when the NYPD statement makes it clear she has done this before, multiple times, is ridiculous.
JohnQknowitall

In which country do you live that “innocent until proven guilty” does not exist?
Lena60

I know, I wonder why the male worker at the station did not do anything.
Lena60

I have trouble posting links Eliza, sorry.I saw it on aol news. it is available on youtube.
kimbev69

Umm in the late 70′s early 80′s me and my sister and cousin justine used to get clothes and shoes out of these boxes in suffern ny all the time, its where i got my first pair of those wooden high heel candies shoes, hmmm those were the days
Sam

Thefts from charity boxes are quite common here, sadly. Gangs of gypsies drive around from box to box, stuff the smallest member of their crew into the box, and fish out the prime stuff to re-sell. Thieves that steal from the poor make me sick. It’s a little sad in this woman’s case because i do believe she had mental problems that weren’t being dealt with, but the head-and-hands-hanging-out-of-the box thing makes this sound like she ended up in medieval-type stocks. Kind of fitting.
hicusdicus

Why ruin a perfectly good lock over a dead person? I wonder if they put her clothes in the drop box?
hicusdicus

If she stole my bread she would be a bad person.
hicusdicus

There are at least two things that are total nonsense. Innocent until proven guilty and Jesus died for our sins. There is another bit of nonsense that has really caused a lot of problems. That Barack Obama was born in Hawaii .
hicusdicus

I am glad you had the balls to say that.
hicusdicus

I think we need more homeless traps. There should be one on every corner. A partially empty wine bottle could be used as bait.
hicusdicus

That’s correct. Thou shalt not steal. I don’t like competition.
JohnQknowitall

Yeah the bitch would deserve to die to, huh? Push her in the oven. One less piece of scum on this planet to be feared and respected.

Except for the Jesus thing I would guess you love a good Fox News report.
girlygerd

Man people and they’re genious ideas, I just cant wrap my head around it, seems better than getting my head stuck though lol
FrikkenFrak

Nah….sounds like the woman truly had some mental issues. Any time I see the words “eccentric” anymore I think the person was probably autistic.

Darwin should, in all honesty,,go to “normal” folks who should know better but were just stupid.
Pyncky

The article said she was a troubled person. If someone is trying to kill or rape someone and karma kicks their ass, then I say “Good.”

But to think that some “eccentric” person should die because they were stealing some clothing? I am with you on this one JQ.
hicusdicus

I never thought of it that way. You apparently like to jump to conclusions. Since I don’t have cable or satellite or an oven I guess you missed that call. You seem to be rather hostile. Was it the Jesus thing or the comment that I don’t like people to steal my bread? If I have to deal with someone in the manner you described I would use my backhoe.
hicusdicus

I did not pick up that anybody thought she should die. With people who live the way she did, shit definitely happens with more frequency.
CT

Where were you when I was trying to get rid of my old stove? It beeped every 30 seconds but after a while you get used to it.
CT

Note to self – stick with online bargain shopping.
Eliza Berntsen

That’s why I never use those boxes. Or the little charity bags that they stick in through your mailbox. When I want to donate stuff I take it directly to the chosen charity- or one for each twice a year when I have my 6-monthly wardrobe clearout.
malq

They have anticut lock devices where they are recessed in and designed so that, if someone does get stuck, you can’t just cut the lock.
newstarshipsmell

Are you serious? I would assume that the quote from the NYPD means she’s been charged and convicted of theft in the past. I mean, I admit I am making an assumption there without bothering to confirm it, but I’d guess it’s a pretty safe assumption. Feel free to prove me wrong with some details about how the cops’ statement on their past involvement with her was untrue.
newstarshipsmell

Yeah, um. That was JQ saying she would deserve to die, not hicusdicus or I.

I certainly don’t think she deserved to die; institutionalized maybe, although if she did nothing in the past to pose a danger to herself or others then there would have been little justification for it, I suppose. I’m just saying, I’m not going to lose any sleep over a repeat-offender offing herself in the very act of repeat-offense.
sugarpie

This sounds like an episode of 1000 ways to die.
Califboy

That’s really fucked up, and I like it!
Califboy

Yep , she’s a head above all others.
Califboy

Maybe god was just calling her home early, to fix her!!!!!
Califboy

That was the smoke detector telling you the food was done honey!!!!!
lizard_spock

I know! It should be Death # 613 – “Good Will Hun-dead” or something.
CT

Honey? You’ve been taking lessons from my spouse. He seems to think if he peppers his statements with honeys, sweethearts and other BS that I won’t notice he is being a pain in my ass. Don’t be that guy, Caliboy. My minds eye looks at you more fondly than that – don’t ruin it for me.
Califboy

Bitch, get cooking!!!
Abroad

No, the opening should have been smaller, so she couldn’t get in in the first place.
neenaP

True
neenaP

The clothes dont go to the poor most of those boxes are run by people that make money off the clothes some how. I take my hand me downs straight to the thrift shop that runs a charity where I know directly where the money goes. My cousin runs sober transitional housing for women getting out of prison. They run the thrift shop, its there or the salvation army.
Zazen

That last bit was pure gold <3