Escapee Michael Burham minutes after being caught by Pennsylvania State Police on Saturday.

Many of us wondered what we would do if we came face-to-face with jail escapee Michael Burham.

But many of us also probably thought that it wouldn’t happen.

For Ken Owens, it did.

Pennsylvania State Police set up a large perimeter Saturday afternoon in response to a tip from residents living along Jackson Run.

Troopers said Burham had been tracked through the woods, approaching Logan Road. They said in the wake of the arrest that Burham “encountered the perimeter and troopers there (and) attempted to prone out and hide.”

But it turns out, Owens, who lives on Follett Run Road and was coming into Warren to get new lawn mower blades, may have seen Burham first. Owens was mowing the yard when the helicopters started to circle.

“I thought ‘Here we go again,’ ” he told the Times Observer. “I just kind of didn’t think a whole lot of it.”

Needing new blades, his dog, Gunner, hopped into his pickup truck and off they went.

Owens said he encountered his first officer in “full camo, vest, AR” in the middle of the road. They exchanged pleasantries and Owens continued down the road.

That exchange played out a total of three times. Each time, Owens continued down the road.

After he passed the third officer, Owens said he saw a “guy running toward the road. He makes contact with me. He just lays down. I’m sitting in the middle of the road completely stopped.”

Owens had seen the man. So had Gunner.

Once the man went prone, all Owens said he could see was the man’s feet and his book bag.

“I’m not looking at him. I’m not processing this,” he said. “This can’t be real. He’s not just going to lay down.”

Owens thought at one point that the whole thing might be some kind of exercise.

His truck windows were down and he immediately reached out the side of his vehicle, pointing to the area where the man in the grass had laid down, trying to get the attention of the third officer he passed.

That wait “seemed like forever.”

Unsurprisingly, multiple officers responded. “One goes and gets on top of him, not in a fight,” Owens said, “trying to get the bookbag off his back. (They’re) all hollering and screaming. I still can’t believe this is happening right next to me.

“They stand him up and face him toward me,” he continued. “Holy (expletive), that’s actually him.”

The whole exchange unfolded in mere moments.

He’s still sitting in his truck, which is stopped in the middle of Logan Road. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “I just drove away. I drove down to Tractor Supply and got mower blades.”

No one had stopped him to talk to him but he wanted to talk to someone so he drove down to the command post in Youngsville.

Owens said one officer, smiling at him, said he appreciated the help. “I probably wouldn’t have believed me either,” he said.

Struggling to process what happened, he called Warren County Sheriff Bryan Zeybel, who passed the information along to the state police.

Owens said he doesn’t think he’s slept since Friday night. He said he’s constantly playing the scenario through his head as well as all the other scenarios that could have happened.

What if Burham pulled a gun? What if the driver was a single woman rather than a man with a dog and a pickup truck? Would Burham have responded the same way then? What if Owens had tried to approach Burham? What if he hadn’t been driving through the area and Burham kept running? Maybe Burham had seen his dog hanging out the window?

Owens said he didn’t say anything to Burham. “I wasn’t sure if he’d even seen me,” he said, as he laid down instantly once they approached each other.

“Logically, timing is everything,” Zeybel said.

He said Burham seeing the truck with a man and a dog in it could have brought Burham to the realization “it’s over. That kind of makes sense.”

“It doesn’t seem real,” Owens said. “It can’t be that simple.”

He estimated the wait for officers to pounce on Burham at 90 seconds to two minutes. “I just couldn’t believe he laid there all that time,” Owens said.