Florida mother missing for days found alive in shipping container, banging on locked door

A Florida mother who was reported missing by a concerned co-worker was found alive in a shipping container after someone heard her banging on the locked door, police said.

Marlene Lopez, 52, was located Thursday afternoon “trapped in a shipping container located next to a business” on Cocoa Boulevard, the Cocoa Police Department said in a Facebook statement.

She was last seen Monday at her home and was reported missing Wednesday after a concerned co-worker called police and said she had failed to pick up her son, according to authorities.

“During the course of the investigation, detectives were notified that the woman had been found. She had been banging on the door of the shipping container when someone heard her and unlocked the door,” police said.

Tyler Sonnenberg, who owns the shipping container, told local station WKMG that he first saw Lopez walking around the area on Monday. He said he locked the container, which is used to store lawnmowers, on Tuesday afternoon and did not hear any noise on Wednesday, according to the news station.

Sonnenberg said he thinks Lopez walked into the unit on her own and passed out. He told the station that he was not at fault for Lopez getting stuck inside the container.

Police said they are still investigating how Lopez ended up inside the container.

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