Inmate transport driver charged with kidnapping for refusing to hand over van

An inmate transport driver is facing kidnapping charges after he quit mid-trip with a van full of prisoners, according to police.

Joshua James Pinquet, 21, allegedly texted his resignation to his boss around 9 a.m. Tuesday while driving four inmates through North Carolina on the way to Florida, the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office said.

The unnamed inmate transport company had been hired by various law enforcement agencies around the country to deliver inmates to and from various detention centers.

In a chain of messages, Pinquet asserted that he was “refusing to stop at the intended destination with the prisoners” in Hickory, N.C., a city 60 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Along with the four inmates locked in the cargo area, a fellow employee of the transport company was trapped in the van for Pinquet’s alleged meltdown.

Deputies easily stopped Pinquet on Interstate 40 just outside of Hickory and secured the four inmates.

The inmates were turned over to other employees of the transport company and continued to their destinations in Florida, the sheriff’s office said.

Pinquet was charged with five counts of felony second-degree kidnapping and felony larceny by an employee.

He’s being held without bond at the Iredell County Detention Center.