Truck missing in Kennesaw: Did ‘Little Houdini’ take it?

A Freightliner truck cab is missing from Penske Trucking Co., 1 1/2 miles from where fugitive Chris Gay escaped from a Tennessee sheriff’s deputy at the Kennesaw Waffle House on Wednesday.

Could it be that “Little Houdini,” as Gay is known, is up to his old crimes?

Or is it a mere coincidence that the fugitive and the truck are missing?

Gay, under arrest for stealing a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer in January of 2007, escaped while being transported to Coffee County, Tenn.

A few days after the Wal-Mart heist, Gay showed up at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla. in country singer Crystal Gayle’s stolen tour bus. The Wal-Mart truck heist inspired Grammy-winner Tim O’Brien to write a song about Gay, who allegedly took the truck to get to his dying mother’s bedside.

Gay’s connection, if any, to the missing Penske tractor hasn’t been determined. “There’s no further evidence except for the circumstance,” said Officer Nathan McCreary of the Cobb County Police Department.

Penske conducted an earlier inventory and the truck was accounted for. During the 6 a.m. inventory check Friday, the tractor was missing, McCreary said.

“Our investigators are looking at every angle and every possible suspect,” he said.

Gay freed himself from handcuffs, leg shackles and a belly chain and escaped at the Frey Road Waffle House just off I-75 near Kennesaw State University. A Coffee County sheriff’s deputy transporting him from Florida to Tennessee had stopped for food when Gay became a fugitive again.

Law enforcement has been alerted to be on the lookout for the 2007 white Freightliner trailer, Georgia license tag IC67PO.

The truck has a Cici’s Pizza logo on top of the cab and JCM Restaurant Distributors on the door.