A standoff between police and two people refusing to leave a stolen car yesterday morning caused an hour-long standoff on the Capital Beltway near the Route 1 exit, closing every lane in both directions.

The closure resulted in what was a normal weekday commute to stretch to more than three hours for some commuter students traveling Interstate 95, the Beltway and Route 1.

The havoc began just before 8 a.m., when police were called after a highway worker found a car stopped along the road with two passengers who were unresponsive. Police ran a check on the car and discovered it was stolen and ordered the passengers, who appeared to be sleeping, from the car.

The police attempted to use loudspeakers to order the pair from the car, but the passengers continued to ignore orders. Fearing the pair might pose a threat, police closed down all lanes of traffic for an hour as they used equipment to drag the pair from the car.

Daniela Alpert, a senior Jewish studies major, was coming south from Baltimore on Interstate 95 when she found traffic stopped. Stuck for almost three hours in what had quickly become a huge parking lot, Alpert listened to media coverage of the standoff as she waited.

“There were all different kinds of reports on the radio,” Alpert said. “The whole situation was kind of crazy. It was like listening to a movie script.”

Alpert missed her 9:30 a.m. class even though she had left early to be on time.

“It’s the kind of situation you have no control over, so you just have to sit it out,” Alpert said.

Andrew Kunin, a senior psychology major, was 45 minutes late for his class because he was also stuck coming south on I-95. Kunin said it took him two hours to get to the campus from Columbia – the longest commute he could remember – though his professor was understanding.

“I mean, it was something that everyone had to go through,” Kunin said. “As long as the teacher was all right with it, I was all right.”

Not everyone took being late to class so lightly.

Temitope Junaid, a junior English major, tried to avoid the traffic by getting off Route 1 three different times, but found it impossible and had to sit it out on Route 1.

“I was pretty pissed because I wasn’t sure if I had a quiz or not,” said Junaid, who was a half hour late to class. “It wasn’t a good morning.”

The standoff ended just before 9 a.m. with the arrests of Donnie Lee Amis, 50, of Washington, and Cassandra Albritton, 44, of Mitchellville. The two face charges on car theft and drug possession after officers found marijuana and a substance that was either cocaine or heroin, police said.

Contact reporter Will Skowronski at skowronskidbk@gmail.com.