The FBI and North Carolina Highway Patrol issued an alert for the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia after the driver told police the men tried to force him off a highway about 30 miles east of Raleigh early Wednesday, Georgia State Patrol spokesman Jim Shuler said.
Investigators said it may have been a case of road rage, but the North Carolina patrol still broadcast a radio message to local police to be on the lookout for a Dodge Neon with New Jersey plates driven by two men who appeared to be Arabic and warning that the men could be armed.
Shuler said the FBI asked the patrol to pass along a statewide lookout for the men saying they were wanted for questioning "in what would appear to be an attempted hijacking of a tractor-trailer."
"It sounded serious to us," Shuler said, noting the FBI's terrorism alert issued late Monday. "In times like these, we decided that we have to do something about it."
