{"id":314989,"date":"2026-10-27T02:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314989\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:46:10","slug":"easton-police-investigate-reported-armed-assault-attempted-carjacking-over-parking-spot-easton-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314989\/","title":{"rendered":"Easton police investigate reported armed assault, attempted carjacking over parking spot | Easton Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EASTON, Pa. &#8211; Easton Police are investigating a report of an armed assault and attempted carjacking.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said the assault stemmed from a dispute over a parking spot.<\/p>\n<p>The Carbon County woman who said she and her family were the victims, is now speaking out, saying she wants others to be aware.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was the most traumatic experience I have ever been through,&#8221; said Laura Bittner of Lansford.<\/p>\n<p>Bittner said she was in the passenger seat of her family&#8217;s car on Saturday night, when her fianc\u00e9 pulled the car over on the side of the 800 block of Northampton Street in Easton to stop at a nearby store.<\/p>\n<p>She said a vehicle pulled behind the family&#8217;s car.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And started honking at us,&#8221; said Bittner.<\/p>\n<p>Bittner said a man with a gun tried to carjack the vehicle while children were inside at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was swinging me around. I was trying to physically hold the door shut the entire time because my minor children were in there,&#8221; Bittner said. &#8220;This happened within 40 seconds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bittner&#8217;s fianc\u00e9, Mason Heffelfinger, said he also had a physical altercation with the man.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a little shaken up. I&#8217;m a little, like, disoriented,&#8221; Heffelfinger said.<\/p>\n<p>The couple said they went to the hospital for their injuries.<\/p>\n<p>A 911 dispatch recording captured the moments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He struck the male five times,&#8221; the dispatcher could be heard saying in the recording. &#8220;The female is hysterical.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The dispatch call said the couple continued driving to the Ideal Food Basket parking lot on the 900 block of Northampton Street, where they were met by officers.<\/p>\n<p>Heffelfinger is reflecting on the time he used to spend in Easton. He said he never questioned his safety.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was just so appalled that something like this happened in Easton,&#8221; said Heffelfinger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want my children to feel safe again,&#8221; said Bittner.<\/p>\n<p>The couple has a message for others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do not get out of your car. Even if somebody is honking at you, do not exit your vehicle,&#8221; Bittner said.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said they are investigating to confirm the information provided to them, and they are asking for the public&#8217;s help.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has information is asked to call the Easton Police tip line at 610.250.6635.<\/p>\n<p>\nCopyright 2026 Maranatha Broadcasting Co., Inc.. All Rights Reserved.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. &#8211; Easton Police are investigating a report of an armed assault and attempted carjacking. Investigators said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[128496,153,155,154,34268,734,2181,55184,128497,3628,294,59483,890],"class_list":["post-314989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-armed-assault","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-carjacking","tag-children","tag-easton","tag-easton-police","tag-parking-dispute","tag-police-investigation","tag-public-safety","tag-trauma","tag-victim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}