NORTH ANDOVER — A local man receiving psychiatric help at a Boston hospital escaped from an ambulance about 5 a.m. today and led state and local police on a chase in a bread truck that spilled baked goods across the highway as he sped north on Interstate 93.

The man, William Matthews, 46, of 392 Massachusetts Ave., abandoned the box truck on the dead-end Poplar Street and fled on foot, throwing debris, including a rotting pumpkin, at police as he ran and stumbled through several back yards before barricading himself in his home.

After a more than two-hour standoff, during which he threatened to harm himself and commit "suicide by cop," a SWAT team smashed through the front door and subdued Matthews before wheeling him away on a gurney.

He was taken to Lawrence General Hospital where he is being held for observation in the emergency room under police guard.

Police plan on charging him with receiving stolen property, the bread truck, at his arraignment. No date for a court appearance has been set, according to police.

North Andover Lt. Paul Gallagher said the incident began last night about 10 p.m. when the man's girlfriend, Lisa Hayes, called police to report that Matthews was having emotional problems.

They sent an ambulance and Matthews, who has owned the Massachusetts Avenue house for about three years, was taken to Mass. General Hospital, where he spent the night.

About 5 this morning, Gallagher said, as Matthews was being transferred to another medical facility for psychiatric evaluation, he escaped from the ambulance he was supposed to ride in and jumped into a bread truck that was making a delivery at the nearby Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary.

The driver of the truck, Hugo Cruz, was in the back of the vehicle unloading loaves of bread and other bakery products when the vehicle began moving, according to Chuck Dahne, who owns AMS Foods, the delivery company that owns the truck and which has a warehouse in Haverhill.

"He thought he was being mugged, so he jumped out," Dahne said of his employee. After Cruz jumped out of the vehicle, Matthews drove over a median strip and onto the Leverett Connector before getting onto Interstate-93.

"He drove off with bread pouring out the back," Dahne said. "Police found bread all over the Leverett Connector. That's how they could follow him. They followed the bread."

Dahne, who was in Haverhill at the time, got a call from someone at the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary, who told him what had happened and that he had better come get his driver.

While he was driving south on Route 93 on his way into Boston , Dahne saw his bread truck headed northbound near the Interstate-95 interchange.

He made a U-turn at the exit and headed back up 93, keeping an eye on his truck and telling State Police where it was and what the truck thief was doing.

Meanwhile, Matthews, using the truck driver's cell phone, was talking to his girlfriend and his best friend, telling them that was distraught and wanted to commit "suicide by cop," Gallagher said.

The term "suicide by cop" generally means making threatening gestures toward police so that an officer would shoot and kill them.

Hayes then alerted North Andover police that her boyfriend was driving around in a stolen truck using someone else's cell phone, but she didn't know where he was.

Dahne said he followed the box truck as it went from 93N to 495N and then onto Route 114 East heading toward Middleton. Matthews then took a left turn on Waverly Road, and a right onto Greene Street. He drove across Massachusetts Avenue and eventually took a right on Poplar Street, a dead-end.

Dahne said he stopped his car a few hundred feet away just as two North Andover cruisers sped up behind him. That's when he saw Matthews jump out of the truck and take off on foot.

As police chased him, he ran through a couple of back yards and entered his own home, barricading himself inside and telling police he had a weapon. As he ran, Gallagher said, he threw objects at police as they chased him, including a rotting pumpkin, Gallagher said.

Shift commander Sgt. Eric Foulds tried at first to talk to Matthews and get him to come out of the house. But since he refused, SWAT teams from the North East Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council were called in to negotiate and attempt to bring the man out.

NEMLEC arrived about 6 a.m. and by 8:30 a.m., as they were talking to him on the phone, a SWAT team stormed into the house and took Matthews into custody.

He was brought out on a gurney and taken to Mass. General Hospital.

No weapons were found in the house, police said.

Neither Hayes nor their 5-year-old son were inside when police stormed the house, Gallagher said.

Police set up a perimiter around the neighborhood, blocking off the road and ushering children on their way to the Atkinson School away from the scene.

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Staff writer Jim Patten contributed to this story.