State Police Land Helicopter at Nellie F. Bennett field on Thursday Afternoon

State police say they landed a helicopter on the Nellie F. Bennett Elementary School field on Thursday afternoon "to pick up personnel for a mission."

That's the only shred of information state police are releasing regarding the unusual landing of a state police helicopter just before 2 p.m. Thursday.

Jeanette Wehner said she was driving home from the beach towards her home on Monmouth Court when she saw the helicopter getting low and decided to follow it.

She took photographs of it landing and then saw a man step out of the helicopter and walk towards the back of the school.

Sgt. Brian Polite, a state police spokesperson, would only say, "State police were picking up personnel for a mission."

He said the state police had given the school advance notice they would be landing.

That was confirmed by a staff member in the school office who said state police had provided no additional information and that the helicopter landed only briefly before taking off and leaving the field.

Polite said the landing had nothing to do with the school itself, there was no emergency there and the landing posed no threat to the local residential community.

Captain Richard Larsen of the borough police department said he knew nothing about the helicopter landing.