A woman’s key fob narrowly saved her from a man who tried to kidnap her from the parking lot of the Gillette, Wyoming, Walmart, according to court documents.
Alex Sigvaldsen, 26, was transferred Wednesday to the felony-level Campbell County District Court, where he faces one count of felony kidnapping, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. He also faces misdemeanor charges for allegedly stealing a sweatshirt, fleeing police and using drugs.
‘Please Not Me’
Sigvaldsen’s case started at about 6 a.m. May 19, when a woman shopped the towel aisle alone in Gillette’s Walmart store.
She’d slept in her car the night before and was headed to Buffalo to work on a ranch, according to the evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
A man in his mid- to late-20s, standing about 5-foot-9, with very short hair, facial hair stubble, a slim build, a hooded shirt and slow speech approached her, saying, “I need to tell you something.”
“What?” asked the woman.
The man, later identified as Sigvaldsen, said the woman was going home with him, or else his friends with “automatic weapons would come inside and shoot up the place,” the woman later recounted to police.
She asked if he was serious.
He held out his phone with his finger on the screen, which the woman believed was a threat to send the message summoning gunmen into the store.
“Please not me,” she said.
“You’re going to live; I’ll let you go at the end of the day,” Sigvaldsen said, according to the affidavit.
The woman said she needed to pay for her merchandise. As the pair turned out of the towel aisle, the woman mouthed “help me” to another female, who appeared not to notice.
She walked slowly toward the register, as Sigvaldsen told her repeatedly to act normal, and that they were a couple, the affidavit alleges.
He kept his hand on her lower back as she paid for her things.
They left the building and walked toward the woman’s silver Toyota Corolla. She asked if she could pay Sigvaldsen instead of going with him.
He said yes. She asked how much.
“What?” he asked, then pulled her close and kissed her on the lips for about one second, the affidavit says.
Key Fob To The Rescue
She started putting her bags in the back passenger side of her car, with him standing near her. She returned the cart to the cart rack, thinking she could drive off, the affidavit says, but he was right there beside her.
He told her to get into the driver’s seat.
“I’m driving?” she asked.
“Yeah, how else would we get to my house?” the man said, according to the affidavit.
From this the woman gathered that he didn’t have a car there and had walked to the Walmart.
She hit the unlock button on her key fob just one time, hoping it would only unlock the driver’s side door.
It did.
She got into the driver’s seat and sped off, driving directly to the Gillette Police Department.
When police reviewed Walmart surveillance footage, they saw the man struggling to get into the passenger side door.
Elementary School Chase
Gillette Police Department Officer Tyler Dillman went to the Sunflower Elementary School soon after the woman gave her statement, because Sigvaldsen also had allegedly approached a teacher in the parking lot.
Two women, both teachers, pulled into the school that morning. One of them noticed Sigvaldsen, shirtless, standing by a nearby stop sign. He ran toward her, the affidavit recounts.
She turned and found him inches from her face, mumbling, “What, where,” repeatedly as he looked around frantically. She edged away from him. He followed her, the affidavit says, and tried to get closer to her.
The teacher yelled to the other female teacher that it was time to go.
Sigvaldsen threw his arms up into the air and bolted away, and the two women went into the school and called police, according to the affidavit.
Meanwhile
Officer Chance Quarterman responded to a call about a man by the same description, possibly drugged or drunk, fleeing the elementary school.
Meanwhile, Big D. Oil Co. called in to say a man by the same description had just stolen a black Badlands sweatshirt from the store, then ran north.
Quarterman chased the man in his patrol vehicle.
Campbell County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Sanders pulled into the back alleyway of Boxelder Business Center, got out and chased the man on foot, calling out to him twice.
Officer Andrew Lucus cut the man off on Wagonhammer Road.
Lucus and Sanders “controlled” Sigvaldsen and put him on the ground, the affidavit says, then Lucus handcuffed him.
Lucus thought Sigvaldsen was high, so he asked if that was the case.
“F--- yeah I’m high,” answered Sigvaldsen, according to the affidavit.
Police found his ID card identifying him as Sigvaldsen, and noticed he had a current Campbell County warrant for probation revocation.
There’s The Video
The investigator who later reviewed Walmart surveillance footage saw Sigvaldsen walk back toward Walmart after his quarry drove away from him, according to the affidavit. Sigvaldsen then ran along the store, then west toward the road and into a subdivision.
Police found the shirt he’d worn during the Walmart encounter in a trash can on Dogwood Avenue across from Sunflower Elementary.
The Campbell County Attorney’s Office charged Sigvaldsen that day, May 19, and transferred him to the higher court last Wednesday. His prosecution is ongoing.
Contact Clair McFarland at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
