On this day, January 25, in 2007, one Christopher Daniel Gay embarked on a trip that would definitely be fit for a dramatized film. Unfortunately for famed country singer Crystal Gayle, that trip involved hijacking her tour bus and driving it to Daytona International Speedway.
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The whole of this story sounds like something made up for a screenplay. In reality, Gay’s story is true, and his history as a habitual car thief is still the stuff of legend today.
Christopher Gayle, appropriately nicknamed Little Houdini, is a car thief and repeated escapee. Throughout much of the early 21st century, he managed to get out of police custody on multiple occasions. However, the most famous instance of his escape and subsequent crimes occurred on this very day in 2007, when he stole country singer Crystal Gayle’s tour bus to visit his dying mother in Tennessee.
A Man Once Stole Crystal Gayle’s Tour Bus To Visit His Ailing Mother
The story goes that Gay was in police custody at a welcome center on I-95 near Hardeeville, South Carolina. After escaping custody, he travelled to Whites Creek in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s unclear if he was able to see his mother or not, but the police were definitely hot on his tail.
In a bid to outrun them, he came across Gayle’s tour bus (with no one inside it, thankfully) and nabbed the vehicle. He proceeded to drive all the way to Daytona Beach, Florida. For reference, that’s about 688 miles. Gay managed to arrive at Daytona International Speedway without being caught by police, and even parked in a VIP spot next to NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. There, he tried to impersonate a member of Tony Stewart’s race team.
Ironically enough, a crazy coincidence is what led police to Gay in the end. He approached a woman to ask for directions. However, that woman was a woman pretending to be a sex worker, operating as part of a police sting. Gay was arrested, and Gayle’s tour bus was returned to her undamaged. Later, sadly, Gay’s mother passed away, and he was not permitted to attend her funeral.
The Crystal Gayle tour bus debacle wasn’t Gay’s last hurrah. He escaped police custody two years later in 2009. At the time, he was held for larceny of a Wal-Mart truck. As of 2022, he is facing pending cases of attempted first-degree murder for a dangerous high-speed chase. But little is known about Gay’s whereabouts today.
In retrospect, Gay has become something of a pop culture legend. Country singer-songwriter Tim O’Brien wrote a song about him called “The Ballad Of Christopher Daniel Gay”. Rapper Sage Francis also wrote a song about him called “Little Houdini”.
Photo by Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
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