[chris]

A 76-year-old woman fell roughly 12 feet into an uncovered manhole behind a grocery store in Palatine, Illinois, then called 911 from the bottom of the shaft and waited about 11 minutes for police to reach her, according to the Daily Herald.

The woman dropped into the hole about 9:38 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2012, in a parking lot behind the Jewel-Osco at the Northwest Shopping Center, near Dundee and Hicks roads, the newspaper reported. The cast-iron cover was missing, and a flat wooden crate had been laid over the opening in its place.

Her call went to the Northwest Central Dispatch System, which handles emergency traffic for Palatine and several other northwest suburbs. Reception was poor and she could not give a precise address. 'I'm somewhere north on Hicks. I fell through a drain cover,' she told the dispatcher, according to the recording.

The woman stayed composed on the recording. 'I've been trying to grab a hold of the handhold,' she said, and added that she thought she had 'scraped myself a little bit.' Dispatchers traced the signal from her cellphone to narrow the search.

Officers located her 10 minutes and 49 seconds after the call came in, and the line cut off shortly before 10 a.m. as they reached the manhole, the Daily Herald reported. She was taken to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, treated for nonlife-threatening injuries and released.

The property was owned by DiMucci Cos., which had been told the cover was missing the previous Friday but did not order a replacement until after the woman fell, according to the newspaper. Palatine Public Works covered the opening after the rescue. Northwest Central Dispatch System released the 911 recording on Aug. 8, 2012.