Woman’s Leg Crushed by Compactor After Falling Down Trash Chute She is recovering after the compactor turned on and crushed her leg.

 -- A 38-year-old woman recently "twisted" and "crushed" her leg after falling three stories down a trash chute in her apartment building in Salem, Massachusetts, according to police.

The incident happened around 5 a.m. on Monday morning after a 19-year-old man who lived in the building offered her $20 in exchange for helping him retrieve the keys he had dropped down the chute while taking out the garbage, said Cpt. Conrad Prosniewski of the Salem Police Department.

"During their first attempt, he held her by her ankles and then lowered her head first down into the chute," Pronsniewski told ABC News today. "When that didn't work, he got a sheet and tied it around her to lower her in. But then it ripped, and she fell down."

The woman landed in a dumpster, where the trash compactor "came on and crushed her," Pronsiewski said. He added that an officer who responded to the scene found the woman in the basement of the building "laying on the ground next to the dumpster screaming in pain."

"Her leg was badly twisted in the wrong direction," Pronsiewski said, explaining that that she was then transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment.

A hospital spokeswoman told ABC News today that the woman was in fair condition as of this morning.

Pronsiewski recommends calling building management rather than trying to obtain lost items down a trash chute by yourself.

Police are not filing charges against either the man or the woman.