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Police: Waitress kidnapped while trying to help intoxicated man get home safely in West Valley City

Posted at 4:44 PM, May 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-11 18:44:44-04

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A man faces several charges after police say he kidnapped a waitress who tried to help him get home safely after he had been drinking heavily at a restaurant.

According to a statement of probable cause, the incident occurred on May 3 at a restaurant in West Valley City, where 29-year-old Yunior Pinto-Zepeda had been drinking heavily.

Police say a waitress noticed he was intoxicated and called a cab for the man, but he refused to ride in the cab and asked the waitress to drive him and his friend to a nearby hotel in Zepeda’s truck.

The waitress said she was afraid of the man but agreed to drive him the short distance, and she asked another coworker to come with her while another friend followed in a second vehicle so he could give the pair a ride back to the restaurant.

Police say that after the woman began driving the truck, Zepeda pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her head and told her “that she will take him anywhere he tells her to.” The woman asked the man to put the gun down, and he told her to shut up, the document states.

When they arrived at the hotel, the two women got out of the vehicle and left with the friend who had followed the truck.

Zepeda’s friend told police that “Yunior was acting crazy and that he pulled out a toy gun, but that [the victims] were afraid.”

Police booked the man into jail on two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.