NESQUEHONING -- Authorities say four people are in custody after an early morning carjacking that closed a Carbon County road.
Four men are being questioned by state police in Luzerne County. Troopers believe they carjacked a woman's mini-van overnight along Interstate 81 and then forced her to go along for the ride.
The four men were arrested just after 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Police are trying to figure out their motives and where they might have been heading before being caught.
The reported carjacking came to an end after sunrise in the area of Route 93 near Beaver Meadows.
Part of the road in Carbon County was shut down for hours as troopers tried to catch the four suspects.
The massive search by police was soon noticed by neighbors.
“My little yorkie dog woke me up. He hears everything,” said Bill Wilkinson. “Some of the officers were coming down the road, then ran up the back road. Some jumped over the fence. Within a couple of minutes, there was probably a couple of police cars here.”
“I actually got a phone call at about 3:55 in the morning,” said Joe Halecky, who owns a business nearby.” They said there was a bunch of policemen down at your shop. So I got here and converged on about 20 cruisers or so.”
It all began around 1:45 a.m. According to state police, a young woman from Mountain Top had pulled onto the side of Interstate 81 southbound near Nuangola in Luzerne County. Troopers aren’t sure why. While she was pulled over, troopers say two of the four suspects walked up to her vehicle, forced her to get out and then into the backseat. They all drove off in both vehicles before releasing the woman a bit later on I-81.
Hours later, the mini-van was spotted by police in Carbon County, where the search eventually came to an end.
The four men were nabbed off of Quakake Road which is near Route 93. Neighbors tell us they were found right around that area before taking off into the woods and that’s when troopers went after them.
“I think they did a fine job with what they did, brought the helicopter in, brought the dogs in,” added Wilkinson.
The condition of the 23-year-old woman from Mountain Top is not known.
The four men troopers believe are responsible for the carjacking remain at the state police facility near Hazleton.