A woman who was found naked in a drain almost three weeks after she was reported missing claims she was stuck in a sewer system.
Lyndsey Kennedy was pulled out of the hole after members of the public heard her shouting from the pavement in Delray Beach, Florida on Tuesday.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and managed to pull her up eight feet out of the storm drain.
Delray Beach Fire’s Special Operations Team was able to remove the storm grate, lower down a ladder and hoist Ms Kennedy up.
“A passerby heard something coming from the storm drain,” said Dani Moschella, of Delray Beach Fire Rescue.
“She heard a woman yelling. They did in fact, to their surprise, find a woman stuck in that storm drain."
Now Ms Kennedy, who was found naked and covered in dirt, is recovering in hospital.
“She was unable to stand up,” Moschella said. “She didn’t have any clothes on. She was very dirty. She had some superficial wounds. Her knees were all scraped up.
“To think of a person down there for any amount of time, it is terrifying,” Moschella said.
She was reported missing nearly three weeks ago by her boyfriend, according to a police report.
“This was by far one of the most bizarre incidents that our officers have responded to,” said Delray Beach Police Department Public Information Officer Ted White, Local10 reported.
Ms Kennedy told detectives she’d gone swimming in a canal near her boyfriend’s home, only to find a doorway which led to a tunnel.
She followed it through for a long time she said, until she ended up in the storm drain.
A police report released today contains her claims that she was walking around the sewer system for about three weeks before she saw some light and yelled for help.
Officers said she seemed “very lucid” and did not meet the criteria to be hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act.
Ms Kennedy was also treated for superficial wounds, such as scrapes on her knees.
Her mother told police her daughter has a history of mental illness and is a frequent user of illegal narcotics, according to the police report.
“She also stated that Kennedy has a history of doing odd things and making bad decisions when she is high on drugs,” the report stated.
