Beware the Piggyback Bandit

A stocky man showed up in a basketball uniform for a game at Century High School in North Dakota on Feb. 4. Players and  coaches assumed he was a fan, so nobody objected when he began to pitch in around the bench.
After the game was over, the man joined the winning team on the court and asked if he could get a piggyback ride. One bemused player gave it to him.
Several days later the school found out they were dealing with the Piggyback Bandit — Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Wash., a 28-year-old man who ingratiates himself with high school sports teams, then hoists his 5-foot-8, 240-pound frame onto the backs of the student athletes.
Shayegan’s antics stretch back to 2008 and had been mainly confined to Washington and Oregon. But since last fall, he has worked his way east to Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. He favors basketball games, but he also has leapt onto hockey, soccer and football players.
When contacted on Tuesday he declined to comment until he could talk to an attorney.
Shayegan has a lengthy criminal rapsheet in Washington as well as nine outstanding warrants in one town in that state. Because of his piggyback antics, he has been banned from high school sporting events in Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota.
Later that week, Shayegan turned up at three basketball games in Minnesota, including the only college game where his appearance has been noted, St. Olaf versus Concordia. At that Feb. 8 game, Shayegan sat near the St. Olaf bench. Like the Bismarck game, it was assumed he had come with the other team.
There were no piggybacks that night, nor were there any when he later appeared at high school events in St. Cloud and Minneapolis. The Minnesota State High School League joined the other states in banning him.
Posted by Deb Smith