‘Little Houdini,

[BERIGAN]

Too bad he isn't as smart while on the lam, as he is getting away from the authorities!!!

‘Little Houdini,’ fugitive who shut down KSU, captured in Fla.

By CHRISTIAN BOONE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, March 16, 2009

Christopher Daniel Gay was apprehended Monday morning in Lakeland, Fla., just 13 days after the shackled and cuffed thief slipped out of a patrol car parked outside a Kennesaw Waffle House.

It was the third time he’d escaped police custody this decade. Gay’s exploits earned him the nickname “Little Houdini,” and he’s even had a country music song written about him.

Gay, 34, is now held in the Polk County, Fla., jail. He might still be at large if not for his penchant for really grand theft.

After eluding the manhunt in Georgia — authorities shut down Kennesaw State University and halted traffic while police dogs tried in vain to track him — Gay stole a tractor-trailer and used it to pilfer a front-end loader from a construction site in central Florida. He was arrested in the 18-wheeler Monday at a Wal-Mart in Lakeland — with the earth-moving machine still on board.

Once charged in Florida, Gay faces theft and escape charges in Tennessee and Georgia.

Lakeland, midway between Tampa and Orlando, was the backdrop for Gay’s most brazen crime back in January 2007.

He showed up at a racetrack in country singer Crystal Gayle’s tour bus, which had allegedly been stolen. Gay told track officials he was there to pick up NASCAR star Tony Stewart. Gay was arrested soon after in Daytona Beach.

That incident came on the heels of what remains Gay’s signature escape, also in January 2007. While being transported to Alabama to face charges for stealing a recreational vehicle, Gay sneaked away from a pair of policemen at a rest stop in South Carolina.

Gay stole a pickup and drove it nearly 300 miles northwest to Manchester, Tenn., where he allegedly took a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer loaded with thousands of dollars of merchandise. News reports at the time said Gay was headed to visit his mother, who was dying of cancer. He ditched the truck in her front yard, then dashed off into the woods.

That inspired Grammy-winning songwriter Tim O’Brien. His song, sung to the tune of Woody Guthrie’s “Pretty Boy Floyd,” preserves Gay’s place in the outlaw Hall of Fame.

“Stole a pickup in Carolina, then a Wal-Mart truck with 18 wheels. He drove toward his dyin’ mama in the Cheatham County hills. And it’s down those lanes and back roads the police made their chase. And he almost made her trailer, he almost saw her face.”

Two weeks later, the Associated Press reported, Gay’s mother died of cancer.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cob...age_tab_newstab

Edited March 17, 2009 by BERIGAN

[Christiern]

Blood is thicker than water.

[Jazzmoose]

And this guy is apparently thicker than both...

[robviti]

That inspired Grammy-winning songwriter Tim O’Brien. His song, sung to the tune of Woody Guthrie’s “Pretty Boy Floyd,” preserves Gay’s place in the outlaw Hall of Fame.

oh great. another thief.