A lone naked man who sheriff’s deputies described as mentally ill was holed up for 2½ hours in the James City Waffle House restroom on Wednesday morning while law enforcement surrounded the restaurant and sealed off the neighboring parking lot.
The event ended around 7 a.m. when deputies convinced the man, who had barricaded himself inside the restroom, to give himself up. Law enforcement officials initially believed the man was armed with a gun, but later discovered he was not.
No hostages were involved and no injuries resulted.
According to Capt. Joe Heckman, the man — whose name was not released — was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center for mental evaluation and involuntary commitment.
Deputies responded to a 4:30 a.m. 911 call, but the incident actually began a couple of hours earlier, according to Kyle Thompson, a waiter at the U.S. 70 restaurant.
Thompson stated that the man first appeared at the Waffle House parking in a Chevrolet Silverado around 2:30 a.m.
“He was playing with all of his lights,” he said. The man blew the horn and started spinning his tires in reverse. Two officers were at the restaurant at the time, Thompson said, and one went out to talk to the man, whom sheriff’s deputies reportedly are familiar with.
Thompson said he also talked to the man while he was in the car.
“He asked me if I’d seen the movie ‘Uncle Willie.’ I said I hadn’t, and he said, ‘Well, I’m Uncle Willie.’”
There was a 1954 British film titled “Uncle Willie’s Bicycle Shop” in which an alcoholic but loveable and eccentric “Uncle Willie” brings two young lovers together; but a quick search of Internet Movie Database did not reveal any other similarly titled films.
The man returned about 4:30 a.m. when there were no other customers and came inside.
Milton Howard, the on-duty cook, said the man, who had urinated in his pants, was carrying a long walking stick and a bayonet-like knife in his hands. He had another knife in his pocket.
Howard told the man to leave and, when asked who the manager was, Howard identified himself as such.
When the man was asked to leave again, Thompson said, he started swearing. Becoming agitated, he began smashing the restaurant’s hanging light fixtures with his walking stick and knocking items from counters.
“At that point, Milton walks toward the back to call 911,” Thompson said, as the man continued smashing things. At one point the man said to Thompson, “I’m bipolar. Did I tell you I’m bipolar?”
A deputy arrived shortly after, when the man threw a shoe at Howard.
According to Thompson, the deputy then saw the man start to draw what initially was believed to be a gun from his pocket and ordered the restaurant workers to leave.
The man retreated to a restroom, where he barricaded himself. It was apparently after this that he removed his clothes.
Heckman said that about a dozen sheriff’s deputies showed up in a number of marked and unmarked cars. They quickly set up a cordon, blocking off the Waffle House as well as the Citgo/McDonald’s parking lot on the east side of the restaurant. For 2½ hours, police armed with rifles kept an eye on the building. A New Bern police dog unit was also called in, in case it was needed.
Heckman said the man finally came out of the restroom at about 7 a.m., when officers rushed him. He was carried out in a stretcher and transported to CarolinaEast by a Township 7 ambulance.
Contact Bill Hand at bill.hand@newbernsj.com or 635-5679.