Christopher Daniel Gay


Christopher Daniel Gay, also nicknamed Little Houdini, is an American habitual car thief and repeat escapee from custody. Gay gained notoriety in 2007 after stealing the tour bus of country music singer Crystal Gayle after an escape. After his last escape he was captured in 2019.

2007 escape

In 2007, he escaped to visit his dying mother in Tennessee and while on the run from police he managed to steal the tour bus of country music singer Crystal Gayle and traveled to Daytona International Speedway. He was apprehended by police after asking for directions from a prostitute who turned out to be part of a police sting. Twelve days following Gay's capture, Gay's mother died on Feb. 7, 2007 of cancer. Gay was not allowed to attend her funeral.
This escape inspired country music singer-songwriter Tim O'Brien to write a song about his escape called "The Ballad of Christopher Daniel Gay." It also inspired indie hip-hop artist Sage Francis to write the song called "Little Houdini" on his 2010 album Lie.

Last escape

Gay escaped police custody the afternoon of March 3, 2009 while being transported from Orlando, Florida to Coffee County, Tennessee. He had been arrested and held for larceny of a Wal-Mart truck. When the officers stopped for food at a Waffle House in Kennesaw, Georgia, Gay was able to free himself of his restraints and fled from the car. Gay ran onto the campus of Kennesaw State University, where school officials and campus police locked down the university for approximately two hours.
Gay had previously escaped police custody in South Carolina while being transported to Alabama on charges of stealing an RV.

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