Woman found in bucket has different story

Police said a Burlington County woman's cocker spaniel knocked her off balance and caused her to fall into a recycling bucket in her garage, where she was rescued Tuesday by neighbors who hadn't seen her in three days.

But Mary Davis, 76, offered a different explanation yesterday from her bed at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly.

She said a man and woman broke into her house in Pemberton Township on Sunday through a dog entrance. The man put her in the bucket and locked the door to the garage, she said.

"I had a cell phone, but it was up there in my bedroom," said Davis. "I couldn't call out."

She said she couldn't say whether anything had been taken from her home.

Neighbors, accompanied by police, found Davis lodged in the garbage-can-size bucket. She was taken to the hospital and was in stable condition yesterday.

Kazon Godwin, the 14-year-old son of Davis' friend Michele Ayala, wriggled through the dog entrance and unlocked the house for police after his family grew concerned that the woman had not been heard from.

Davis is frail as a result of a hip replacement and knee operations, neighbors said. She works as a teacher's aide in the local school district.

"I feel pretty good," she said yesterday.

Pemberton Township police officials could not be reached for further comment yesterday.