Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST VALLEY CITY — A waitress who was being a good Samaritan by driving an intoxicated customer back to his hotel became the victim of a kidnapping at gunpoint, police say.
Yunior Pintto-Zepeda was arrested Wednesday night by West Valley police for investigation of two counts of aggravated kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault.
Several days earlier, on May 3, Pintto-Zepeda went to an undisclosed restaurant in West Valley City and "was drinking heavily. He was so intoxicated that his waitress … called a taxi for him," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
Pintto-Zepeda refused the taxi, however, and insisted that the waitress drive him and his friend in Pintto-Zepeda's truck to their nearby hotel, the report states. The waitress agreed to drive the men a short distance to their hotel, but only if another waitress could be with them and if another friend followed them in a separate car.
But when they got in the truck, "Yunior pulled a handgun from under the seat and pointed it at (the waitress') head and told her that she will take him anywhere he tells her to," according to the report.
He also pointed the weapon at the second waitress "and told her to shut up," the report states.
When they got to the hotel, the two women got out of the truck and ran to the car that was following them, police say.
Pintto-Zepeda's friend later told police that "Yunior was acting crazy" and claimed the gun was a toy, the report says.
Police have asked that he be held without bail because he is from Guatemala and detectives fear he is a flight risk.
