Update:

A Mansfield Township man wearing a Batman-like mask and cape was arrested Tuesday after approaching customers outside a Home Depot and asking if they needed help, according to reports.



Matthew Argintar

, 23, of Mansfield Village, walked around the store's parking lot, asking people if they needed help, Mansfield Township police said. The man was dressed in all black, wearing tactical pants, elbow and arm pads and a bulletproof vest underneath his clothing, police said.

Many customers retreated to their cars after seeing the man, said Matty Auer, of Mansfield Township, who pulled into the store's parking lot just before 3 p.m. She had just picked up her 8-year-old son, his friend and her friend's daughter from soccer camp and planned to quickly run into the store, she said.

At first she thought the man was walking to or from a nearby airsoft arena and didn't think anything particularly odd about his presence. When she parked her car next to the man, he began waving at the children. He smiled "creepily" and spoke inaudibly, she said.

She then realized he was wearing a Batman mask.

"The only thing I could think of was what happened in the movie theater," she said.

She immediately thought of the July 20 shootings, where 12 people were killed during a premiere of the "The Dark Knight Rises" at a Colorado movie theater. The costume's connotation -- whether or not intentional -- terrified and angered her.

"What the hell would possess someone to do this, even as a joke?" she recalled thinking.

Auer drove away from the man and asked a Home Depot employee to call 911. The man walked past the store's entrance and could be heard asking people, "Anyone need some help? I'm here to save the day," she said.

Those in the parking lot were fearful that Argintar was a Colorado "copycat," she said. When the man reached into his pocket, to grab what turned out to be a phone, Auer called the police.

"You just didn't know what he was capable of," she said.

Police, who received several emergency calls, responded within minutes, she said. She and the children watched police arrest Argintar from the garden center of the store, she said.

"Obviously, our concerns are for public safety," Mansfield Township police Lt. Michaeel Reilly said. "We just want to make sure he gets any help that he may need so that nothing happens in the future and he doesn't take it any further."

Argintar was taken to Hackettstown Regional Medical Center to be evaluated by crisis intervention, according to reports. Argintar faces disorderly person and possession of handcuffs charges. Hackettstown and Washington Township, Morris County, police aided in the arrest.

Auer said she hopes others do not attempt anything similar to Tuesday's incident.

"It's a very sick joke if that's what it was supposed to be," she said. "It's not funny."

Staff writer David Foster contributed to this report.