Not Even A Cloverleaf For Naked Man On Freeway Unknown Man Stops I-5 Traffic, Cites ‘Chemicals Of The Antichrist’

The problem began with a report that an “unwanted man” was lurking in a residential neighborhood, police said.

Perhaps that’s what it was all about.

By the time it was over Friday, the man had run onto nearby Interstate 5, stripped down to the buff and climbed atop a parked semi to brandish a knife and rant about religion and “chemicals of the Antichrist.”

Northbound lanes were closed during the four-hour incident, with traffic routed around the bizarre scene.

The incident ended about 10 a.m. when the man threw down his knife, climbed down and was arrested. He was taken to Skagit Valley Hospital for a mental evaluation, Police Chief Mike Barsness said.

“It’s like a Friday the 13th joke gone bad,” said one local man who watched through binoculars as police subdued the man and “trussed him up like a little hog.”

The man, in his mid-30s, carried no identification. Police were not immediately able to establish his identity, Barsness said. He was under investigation for assault, the chief added.

The incident began about 5:30 a.m., Barsness said, when police responding to a report of an unwanted man lurking in a residential area confronted a man who displayed a knife, scuffled with officers and fled.

Discarding his clothing en route, the man ran onto the freeway.

As traffic came to a stop, he tried to enter a car, but the door was locked. Then he scrambled over the cab of a tractor-trailer rig and onto the top.

He ranted and paced. He used the knife to slash his hands and chop off tufts of his hair. He demanded pennies and tree branches.

“I am poisoned!” he yelled. “My veins are poisoned! Copper is the only thing that will help me. Copper is good! Sunflowers have copper! I need sunflowers!”

He also ordered the officers surrounding the truck to “get down on your knees and pray!”

The drama about 55 miles north of Seattle unfolded near a local homeless shelter, Friendship House, where the man reportedly had eaten Thursday night. He was accompanied then by a little black dog, whose whereabouts Friday were not known.

“He said he and his dog had not eaten in three days,” shelter manager Russell Smith said.

The man was wearing clothes and didn’t appear threatening, Smith said. He took the sandwiches and orange juice he was given and ate on the front steps.

“He talked to his dog, saying, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you,”’ Smith said. “It was a little bizarre but not unusual for here.”