NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — Police say a woman who had climbed into a Connecticut supermarket’s trash compactor suffered potentially life-threatening injuries when a store employee turned it on with her inside.

New London police say emergency personnel responded to the NSA Supermarket at about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday where they found the severely injured but conscious woman inside the industrial compactor.

She was pulled free and taken to the hospital with undisclosed injuries.

She was not a store employee. Police tell The Day that store employees had been looking for the woman, who they suspected of stealing.

Her name wasn’t made public.

The investigation is ongoing.

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