Daniel Heeman, Gerald Hicks and April ShawELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. (WHTM) -
Police in Lancaster County are warning the public that three people arrested on drug charges may have dumped possible hazardous materials along a rural roadway between Bainbridge and Middletown.
The suspects, all from northeastern Pennsylvania, were taken into custody Thursday by Northwest Lancaster County Regional police on charges they had materials used to make methamphetamine.
Police identified them as Daniel Heeman, 29, of Columbia Cross Roads; Gerald Francis Hicks, 45, of Canton; and April Marie
Shaw, 26 of Towanda.
According to police, an off-duty officer saw something thrown from a car Thursday morning in the 800 block of Amosite Road near Elizabethtown. The officer was able to get the car's license plate as it fled, then checked to see what was tossed in the field and found a cylinder tank, police said.
Responding officers smelled anhydrous ammonia coming from
the tank and blocked off the roadway for several hours until the
tank was secured. There was no immediate danger to citizens
living in the area, police said.
Heeman, Hicks and Shaw were later stopped in the 100 block of Yoder Road in Conoy Township. All three were being held in the Lancaster County Prison on $275,000 cash bail each.
Police said during the investigation it was determined that the three may have dumped a small one or two gallon red or blue and white-colored cooler and trash bags along the roadway.
The cooler contained possible hazardous materials, but police said they have been unable to determine exactly where the cooler and trash bags were dumped. They continue to search for the items.
Police cautioned anyone encountering the items not to handle them, but to call their local police department.
