An attempt to take clothing out of a Sunnyside garment drop box proved deadly for a Staten Island woman this afternoon, when she apparently suffocated after the container's door dropped on her head, trapping her inside.

The woman, who police identified as Melissa Mazzeo, 51, of Sunnyside Terrace, climbed into the clothing and shoe drop on the side of Victory Superette and Bagels, on Victory Boulevard near Clove Road, a little after noon.

Peter Schenck, who lives in the neighborhood and does maintenance work for the bagel shop, described what happened next: A customer came in, saying that a woman was stuck in the box, screaming.

When he went outside to check, it was too late -- the woman was unresponsive, her head and hands hanging out of the slot, the door pushing down on her neck.

"Two hands and a head, that's it, just out the door," Schenck said. "Not a sight to see."

An NYPD spokesman said witnesses had seen the woman climbing into the clothing box in the past.

Police and rescue workers couldn't take her out of the box for several hours, Schenck said, and had to wait for someone to come remove the lock.

"It's got to be about the bizarrest thing I've ever seen -- ever," Schenck said.

An autopsy is planned for tomorrow, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

Schenck said she was a mainstay in the neighborhood -- she'd often come around with a shopping cart, and a hook to get into clothing boxes.

In November, she was arrested and charged with attempted petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The case remained open, with her next court appearance slated for May.

Workers at the bagel shop said the woman came around often, and had been barred from the store for taking items.

Her neighbors on Sunnyside Terrace described her as troubled, and said she'd often get into "quarrels" with people on the block.

She'd go out looking for items and trash to scavenge, and leave them on her lawn, they said. A jacket was spotted hanging from a second story window, and one neighbor recalled seeing a full-length dress hanging from the house a few days earlier.

"She was a little eccentric," said neighbor Mike Caruselle. "She was always walking around the neighborhood. She used to jog a lot. Everybody in the neighborhood knew her."

In 2007, a fire tore through the second floor of her house, sending her and her then 12-year-old son to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Fire officials said at the time a space heater may have sparked the blaze.

Neighbors say her son moved out about a year ago. No one answered the door at the residence late tonight.