The Ballad of the Piggyback Bandit
Retracing the steps of Sherwin Shayegan, who was banned in five states for jumping on high school athletes' backs
By
Bryan Curtis on July 11, 2012
Two detectives walk into a café in Helena. They remove their sunglasses. They dislodge the chaw from their cheeks. "We don't flash our badges till we get the food," Lawrence tells me. The other day, a Montana cop got a little surprise in his drive-through.
Listening to Detectives Chad Lawrence and Randy Ranalli talk about their recent criminal apprehension is like listening to the cops in
Fargo. There's a certain amazement, a perverse sense of honor, that an arch-fiend wandered into their corner of the world.
Ranalli: "It was like, 'Oh my Lord, we caught this guy red-handed.'"
Lawrence: "It was one of the most bizarre things I've seen!"
