Local law enforcement officials broke up a planned meeting Wednesday morning in Hermitage of those seeking jobs through American Air Filtration and a man representing the company.

An often hostile crowd gathered outside Sharon's Premiere Hotel along South Hermitage Road. People said they were phoned by company representatives Tuesday night or early Wednesday saying they were selected for a second job interview and to appear at the motel for an orientation at 11 a.m.

More than a dozen people questioned by The Herald said they had attended a gathering Tuesday at Howard Johnson's in East Lackawannock Township for job interviews and filled out employment applications. They said they were responding to help-wanted ads which appeared in area newspapers, including The Herald.

The state Attorney General's Office shut down the operation on Tuesday. More than 1,000 people also mobbed motels in Meadville and Erie in response to similar ads, the office said.

The ads touted starting positions paying $450 a week with American Air Line or American Air Lines, which was relocating its national manufacturing plant to the area and was hiring 45 full-time positions. These companies have no relationship to national air carrier American Airlines, the AG's office said.

Carla Smith, an American Air representative who also said she lived in Cambridge Springs, told The Herald Tuesday the ads were a misprint and that the company went under the name American Air Filtration and that only one manufacturing job would be available locally but that other positions would be available.

Darrell Vandeveld, deputy attorney general in charge of the Erie Regional Office of the state AG's office, previously called "ludicrous" Ms. Smith's assertions that the ads were misprinted.

Standing in the parking lot among the crowd was Dave Marshall, who described himself as an independent contractor who conducted job interviews and orientations for American Air. He also said he's been selling the company's products for 10 years. Marshall was seen Tuesday at Howard Johnson's accepting applications from job-seekers and asking them questions.

Marshall told the growing crowd in the parking lot at 10:30 a.m. that a problem had arisen with the motel, and he was trying to arrange other accommodations by cellular telephone.

Hermitage police and the Mercer County sheriff's deputies arrived shortly afterward and questioned Marshall inside the motel. Police copied information from his driver's license, which he provided at their request. They questioned him about who he worked for and why he was at the motel.

Marshall could be heard again saying he was an independent contractor there on behalf of American Air. He also said all of the people outside had been hired by the company and he was there to conduct an orientation.

He told investigators John Tobias owned the company.

Police told him the company had unpaid bills at the motel and wasn't wanted there. They told him to disperse the crowd and leave.

As he emerged from the motel, Marshall was confronted by a number of angry people.

"I want my application back,'' a woman snapped.

"I don't have it,'' Marshall responded.

Several began shouting and cursing at Marshall, demanding their applications be returned and peppering him with questions about the company. They complained the ads about manufacturing jobs were misleading.

"I didn't take out the ad,'' he said, adding the company was offering real jobs for door-to-door sales of vacuum cleaners.

He gave people a cellular telephone number for Tobias, although he refused to give them his own phone number when they asked for it.

The Herald dialed the number repeatedly, trying to reach Tobias. Nobody answered the phone and there was no way to leave a voice-mail message.

Marshall denied allegations from the crowd that he was involved in a scheme.

"Why would I do something that would jeopardize my paycheck?'' he said.

Told by police that he would be arrested for trespassing if he didn't leave immediately, Marshall told the job-seekers they would be contacted by phone later in the day with information on their applications and what the company would be offering them. He quickly got in his car and drove away.

Vandeveld said he believed Marshall was unaware of the Attorney General's Office had shut down the operation on Tuesday.

"I don't think he got the word that all activities had been canceled,'' Vandeveld said. "He sounds like he's the second-day coordinator of what we think is a fairly involved scam.''

No one in the crowd would give a name, but as people were leaving, one man lamented that attending the "orientation" may have cost him his current job. He said he called off work at a time when the business was seriously short of manpower.

"They told me if I called off, to call tomorrow to see if I still had a job,'' he said.