Man Handcuffed Outside Bus Terminal After Causing Scene Late Thursday Afternoon

A man whose pants were around his ankles was handcuffed outside the Ridgewood Bus Terminal after causing quite a commotion Thursday at around 5:00 p.m. Dozens of commuters at the terminal allege being subject to the man's “incoherent ramblings” before officers wrestled with the man on the ground and carted him off on a gurney en route to a local medical facility.

The man had been seen before noon on Thursday laying across several seats in the terminal, apparently asleep. Later in the day, he rolled off and began yelling incoherently at passersby, said one witness. 

Two men passing the terminal said they had seen him laying on the ground, rolling from side to side and making inarticulate noises. One of the men attempted to calm him while the other called the police.

“He was just uttering gibberish, he wasn’t saying real words,” said one witness, who declined to be named. “We saw him on the ground, some lady was talking to him. I figured we should just call the cops.”

Within a few moments an officer of the Ridgewood Police Department arrived on a bicycle and coaxed the man onto one of the seats in the terminal. The man, who appeared to be in his late forties, had an unlit cigarette in his mouth. He would not say if he had been drinking when questioned by witnesses and officers but did utter several obscenities.

The officer continued trying to talk to the man until an ambulance arrived several minutes later.

When the officer emerged, the man’s pants had fallen around his ankles. He stumbled and fell to the parking lot, where he was handcuffed by two police officers, who attempted to pull his pants up without much success.

EMTs and members of the Ridgewood Fire Department helped lift the man onto a stretcher, where he was restrained and taken to Bergen Regional.

James Kleimann contributed to this report.