A former Wyoming VFW commander accused of stealing his own war helmet had no idea there was a felony warrant for his arrest until he was taken into custody at an airport in front of his family.
Richard Knapp, 59, told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview that he, his wife, Nathalie, daughter, son, and son’s girlfriend were returning to the United States to visit Knapp’s mother and various sites after moving to the Netherlands a couple years earlier.
When they landed at Washington Dulles International Airport on July 23, Knapp said, authorities arrested him and took him to the Loudon Adult Detention Center.
Nathalie and the three young adults cried.
“We all did,” Knapp added.
He said that jail officials deprived him of his anti-rejection medication – a twice-daily staple after his wife donated her kidney to him three years earlier to save him from renal failure.
In jail he worried constantly about the gifted kidney shutting down, he said.
The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office did not return a request for comment by publication.
Eight days after the arrest, Knapp was in a ground transport vehicle being extradited to Wyoming. The drive took three days, he said.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office gave him his kidney medication after he arrived in Cheyenne, Knapp said. But other than that, the two jails were interchangeably dismal.
“Jail is ... jail,” said Knapp with a wry chuckle.
He said his family sought frantically to learn why he’d been arrested.
Court documents say Knapp bonded out of jail by putting down $300 of a $3,000 bond on Aug. 10.
Then his court case started.
Back It Up
Knapp served in the Air Force for 20 years and eight months, including four years at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.
From F.E. Warren, Knapp was deployed to Iraq. His advanced combat helmet went with him.
Knapp also served tours in Afghanistan.
Post-retirement, Knapp became the commander over the VFW post 4343 of Cheyenne from 2015-2016. He let the post borrow his early-2000s era helmet from the Iraq deployment for its display case, he said.
Knapp’s fellow VFW officer of that era, Greg Anderson, recalled when Knapp brought it in, he told Cowboy State Daily.
“All that stuff in that display case was brought in voluntarily by people,” said Anderson. “They had the right to take that out of there at any time. We had many people come in and take their belongings throughout my tenure.”
The helmet had been part of Knapp’s gear in Iraq because the civil engineer was in a construction battalion, Anderson said.
Court Documents Say
According to an evidentiary affidavit by Laramie County sheriff’s deputy Erin Gerhardt-Valois, she was summoned to the post at about 4:10 p.m. in early October 2025, to answer a call of theft.
According to the affidavit, post Quartermaster David Stewart said a man had entered the post with three other people on Sept. 24, 2025.
The man spoke to the bartender, identified himself as a former post commander and asked to speak to the manager.
The bartender, Kary Pennington, told the man – later identified as Knapp – that the canteen manager wasn’t there.
In Knapp’s recollection, he told Pennington he was there to collect his helmet.
Though court documents describe the helmet as a World War II era relic, it’s nowhere near that old – nor that valuable, Knapp told Cowboy State Daily.
The video recording investigators reviewed shows Knapp walking to the cabinet, opening the glass front, and removing the helmet, according to the affidavit. He set the helmet on a table in the room, then tried to leave the building by a side door.
The side door was locked.
Knapp walked back to the table, picked up the helmet and walked back into the bar area, where he spoke to Pennington again. Then he and his three friends left.
Stewart told authorities the helmet was worth about $2,600, the affidavit says.
Knapp disputes that. He says it’s worth less than $400.
The $2,600 figure is more than double Wyoming’s $1,000 threshold for felony theft.
The difference is significant: State law punishes misdemeanor theft with up to six months in jail, and felony theft with up to 10 years in prison.
The Laramie County District Attorney’s Office filed the felony charge against Knapp on Oct. 20.
Knapp had a felony warrant under his name for nine months.
He had no idea, he said.
Stewart did not return a Cowboy State Daily voicemail request for comment.
Dismissed
Knapp hired Just Criminal Law attorney Sara Lock to represent him, his court file says.
He said he helped his attorney confirm the helmet’s new value “and the case was dismissed.”
Gebhardt-Valois’ reports on the case give more detail.
She spoke with Knapp’s friend Gary Lustgraaf on July 28 to learn more about Knapp’s case.
Lustgraaf told her that Knapp and his family had been visiting him last year during the helmet incident.
Lustgraaf told Knapp that the VFW post was shutting down, and Knapp wanted to get his helmet out before it did, the report says.
In Knapp’s recollection, he wanted to remove the helmet while the post underwent construction.
Lustgraaf told the deputy that he’d been with Knapp when he retrieved his helmet. Knapp didn’t think he could take it back home to the Netherlands, so he left it with Lustgraaf.
The deputy collected the helmet as evidence.
Later that evening, she also spoke with Knapp’s family.
Nathalie described Knapp’s medical worries. These are largely redacted from the report.
“The whole Knapp family was very nice and easy to talk with,” Gebhardt-Valois observed in the report.
The deputy also sent an email to jail nurse staff to explain Knapp’s medical situation.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak reviewed the case report Friday when speaking with Cowboy State Daily.
“It provides the full story,” he said, adding that the deputy ultimately worked hard to help Knapp.
Letters From Folks
While Knapp was trundling toward Wyoming in a jail transport vehicle Aug. 4, Stewart contacted the deputy once again, this time with evidence helpful to Knapp.
Lustgraaf had contacted Stewart about the case, offering “several statements from individuals who witnessed Richard bring his military helmet and goggles into the VFW to put on display.”
Stewart gave these statements to Gebhardt-Valois.
The report shows one statement from Anderson, another from Lustgraaf, and two more from other individuals.
Laramie County Deputy District Attorney William Edelman filed a motion to dismiss the case on Sept. 1 – “for the reason that the State cannot sustain its burden of proof.”
Cheyenne Circuit Court Judge Sean Chambers granted the motion the next day.
Knapp said he still worries about his kidneys. He's still dour from jail.
And he's not setting foot in that VFW anytime soon.
“I’m glad I was proven innocent,” Knapp said. “I would never do anything like (felony theft). Never.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
