Housekeeper Marites Fortaliza was alone in Warren Stephens’s townhouse when she became trapped on Friday night

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A woman was rescued on Monday after being trapped in the elevator of a billionaire’s Manhattan townhouse for an entire weekend. She is now in the hospital in stable condition.

The house is owned by Warren Stephens, the chief executive of the investment bank Stephens. He has an estimated net worth of $2.4bn.

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Stephens was away with his family over the weekend, leaving 53-year-old housekeeper Marites Fortaliza alone in the townhouse. She entered the elevator on Friday evening and got stuck.

At 10am on Monday morning, a member of the Stephens family and a delivery worker called 911 when they found the elevator wasn’t working. When firefighters arrived they were shocked to find Fortaliza inside.

“We went for a stuck elevator,” a fire department of New York (FDNY) official said. “Not for a person stuck in an elevator.”

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Firefighters forced their way into the elevator to find Fortaliza stuck between the second and third floors. After being rescued she was taken to Weill Cornell medical center. Authorities say she is dehydrated but in a stable condition.

According to city records, the elevator was inspected in July and had no violations. It is not known whether Fortaliza had a mobile phone or if the emergency call button was working.

A spokesperson for Stephens said Fortaliza has worked for the family for 18 years and described her as “extended family”.

The spokesperson said: “The Stephens family is relieved and thankful that she is doing well in the hospital. The cause of this unfortunate incident is being investigated and appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that something like this never happens again.”

It is rare for an elevator malfunction to cause such a serious risk, but over the same weekend there was a major elevator problem in the UK, with shoppers “thrown up and down” for 40 minutes in a Cardiff shopping centre.