A 34-year-old man was arrested in New Jersey after he gave a 14-year-old boy a back rub in an airport, authorities said Saturday.
Sherwin Shayegan. (Port Authority Police Department)Sherwin Shayegan from Bothell, Washington, is facing child endangerment charges for walking up to the teen—a stranger to him—and rubbing his shoulders and back at a JetBlue terminal in Newark Liberty International Airport, New York Daily News reported.
He allegedly touched the teen at a luggage carousel around 3:10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29 and then handed him a $10 bill along with a note that read, “This is money for letting me give you a massage. Thank you.”
According to authorities, the note contained “alarming content,” Fox News reported, but did not give further details.
After the incident, the teen reported the exchange to Port Authority Police, who managed to track down Shayegan at his hotel in Newark, New Jersey, and arrest him.
Unnamed sources told New York Daily News that they found several other envelopes with notes and $10 bills inside his hotel room. Police also said that a name of a different U.S. airport was on each envelope.
Shayegan has also built a reputation around his Washington state home for showing up at high school sport’s games and tricking athletes into giving him piggyback rides.
He has been nicknamed the “piggyback bandit” by media, according to Fox News.
Officials said Shayegan has been banned from schools in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.
“He makes himself appear as if he’s limited or handicapped. I think he plays an empathy card, so to speak,” Jim Haussler, activities director for the Bismarck, N.D., public schools, told The Associated Press. “It’s a little creepy. Well, a lot creepy is more like it.”
This is not the first time Shayegan has been arrested. Back in 2011, he was arrested on assault charges for jumping onto two soccer players, Fox News reported. He was ordered to pay a $730 fine and was given a one year suspended jail sentence.
