An 82-year-old Stroudsburg man who was trying to get to the Regal Northampton Cinema to see the thriller "Operation Finale" starred in an action adventure of his own making early Tuesday afternoon, Washington Township police Chief Scott Miller said.
Miller was returning to his Slate Belt police station from an active shooter drill at Easton Hospital in Wilson Borough and was approaching the Route 248 interchange at 12:37 p.m. on Route 33 North in Lower Nazareth Township, he said.
Suddenly, a maroon pickup truck pulled onto the highway ahead of him, drove north for a bit and then pulled a U-turn across both lanes, Miller said. Two wheels on the highway berm and two wheels on the rain-softened grass median, the man drove toward traffic, Miller added.
The chief was in the left lane so suddenly the truck was coming at him, he said. The pickup passed without hitting the police car and Miller activated his lights and siren and made a U-turn of his own in the median and headed south, he said.
The pickup sped up and the chief tried to keep his distance as not to create an even greater hazard, Miller said. Eventually Miller lost sight of the truck and radioed the Northampton County emergency dispatch center to update his status.
Miller didn't know if they man was fleeing a crime or having a medical issue, but the chief was going to discontinue the pursuit for safety reasons and asked about having the highway shut northbound, he said.
There were two Pennsylvania Department of Transportation utility trucks inadvertently blocking the median near the Hecktown Road interchange -- the next one south of Route 248 -- in Lower Nazareth and the maroon pickup truck stopped as Miller drove up from behind, the chief said.
Within a minute, there were several Pennsylvania State Police vehicles there as well, Miller said.
A driver heading up the Route 33 North on-ramp off Route 248 in Lower Nazareth Township drives just past the Regal Northampton Cinema 14 & RPX, but there is no place to enter the movie complex. (Google image)
Miller asked the man what he was doing and the man explained he was trying to get to the theater in the nearby Northampton Crossings on the north side of Route 248. The shopping center runs along the highway. He said he thought if he got on what turned out to be the northbound entrance ramp to Route 33 that it would take him there, Miller said. The theater is just to the right of the ramp, but there is no entrance.
The man wanted to see the film that IMDb explains is "director Chris Weitz's historical thriller ... based on the story of how a group of Israeli secret agents arrested notorious SS officer Adolf Eichmann."
Once the man was on the highway, he turned around and headed south so he wouldn't get lost, Miller said.
The median was very soggy and goes down a decline to a low point, so it is not clear the truck would have made it to the southbound lanes if that was the initial intention of the U-turn, Miller said.
The elderly man was coherent and answered all the questions he was asked, Miller said. And it wasn't a matter of GPS taking the man along the wrong path, Miller said. The man wasn't using the navigational assistant.
State police took over, because that stretch of highway is their jurisdiction, and called an EMS unit to take the man to a hospital to get checked out.
State police at Belfast, who patrol the highway, didn't immediately have an update about any possible citations.
"Just thank God nobody got hurt," Miller said. "Everybody's fine, including him."
Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.