The inspiration for a folk ballad about a man who stole a Wal-Mart trailer to see his dying mother was on the loose Wednesday after escaping from custody in Georgia, authorities said.
Chris Daniel Gay slipped out of leg irons, waist chains and handcuffs and escaped from a deputy Tuesday in Kennesaw, officials say. The officer was transporting him to Tennessee to face charges of stealing the trailer in January 2007, officials say. He also is accused of stealing country singer Crystal Gayle's tour bus.
Coffee County Sheriff Steven Graves said the officer, a 40-year-veteran, stopped to eat and use the restroom at a restaurant when the 34-year-old Gay escaped, causing a two-hour lockdown at Kennesaw State University. Cobb County police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said Gay isn't believed to be dangerous.
Gay, who police say is 5-foot-5 and weighs 140 pounds, was the main character in a 2007 song by Grammy-award winning bluegrass picker Tim O'Brien. He wrote the lyrics to "The Ballad of Christopher Daniel Gay" about the convict's 2007 journey and set them to the melody of folk singer Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd."
News reports and O'Brien's song said Gay stole the trailer and tried to visit his mother who was dying of cancer. She died weeks later and he never saw her.
"Stole a pickup in Carolina, then a Wal-Mart truck with 18 wheels," the lyrics say. "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."
Police say he abandoned the rig within 50 yards of his mother's home northeast of Nashville. Gay was later spotted driving Gayle's tour bus in Florida and was arrested the next night.
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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
Copyright 2009 AP News
