The Piggyback Bandit Has Struck Again

Sherwin Shayegan, aka the Piggyback Bandit, hasn't been seen or heard from since his summer star-turn, which culminated with this exhaustive account of his sad adventures by Grantland's Bryan Curtis. But earlier this week, Shayegan was back at it after a basketball game at a midwestern junior college, and police in Bettendorf, Iowa, arrested him yesterday for "causing a disturbance and trying to steal a customer's food" at a local supermarket, according to an affidavit.

Capt. Keith Kimball of the Bettendorf police department said Shayegan appeared at Tuesday's basketball game across the Mississippi River at Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill., where he was again asking for piggyback rides. (The official Twitter account of the Black Hawk baseball team confirms this.) Police did not respond to an incident that night, but the school did send out an advisory to other colleges and high schools in the Quad Cities region, and that advisory eventually made its way to the region's law enforcement officials. "We haven't had any run-ins with him in regards to [piggybacking]—yet," Kimball told me over the phone.

But Bettendorf cops did run into Shayegan, 29, at the local Schnucks supermarket. At 4:50 p.m. yesterday, officers responded to a call after customers at the store reported that Shayegan was making "loud noises" that "caused distress," according to the arrest affidavit. Shayegan shouted several times that he was autistic and also shouted at store employees, "telling them how to do their jobs." A manager asked Shayegan to leave the store several times, but he returned and refused to leave again. Police eventually arrived and charged him with trespassing and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. Shayegan was held in the Scott County (Iowa) jail overnight and released this morning.

Shayegan's mother has told Grantland's Curtis that her son has Asperger syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder. Yesterday's incident was also not the first time Shayegan has drawn the attention of law enforcement for acting up in a store.

Here is Shayegan's arrest affidavit in its entirety: