A man allegedly posing as a professional basketball player was able to drive off with a $90,000 BMW SUV from a Georgia hotel after convincing valet workers he owned the car.
The suspect was allegedly seen walking through the hotel lobby and retrieving belongings from a white Audi before presenting a valet ticket for a gray 2026 BMW X5 at the Hyatt Regency Savannah around 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, according to a police report obtained by WSB-TV.
Investigators said the suspect told employees he was a professional basketball player with multiple vehicles at the hotel before getting in the vehicle and driving off.
The valets told police that each ticket was unique to a specific vehicle.
The BMW was owned by a dealership and had been provided as a loaner vehicle for a hotel guest.
The dealership later tracked the BMW to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — prompting Savannah police to notify local authorities and have the vehicle listed as stolen in state and national databases, WSB-TV reported.
Investigators later discovered the white 2025 Audi A5 he was seen in before driving off in the BMW had also been reported stolen the previous day.
The Audi was discovered unlocked in the hotel’s parking garage later that morning with no visible exterior damage.
It remains unclear how the Audi was stolen.
The suspect has also been linked to another hotel valet theft in Savannah nearly two weeks earlier, the outlet reported.
A guest at a Fairfield Inn left her black 2019 Toyota C-HR with valet service around 4 p.m. on Aug. 5, and when she sent a retrieval code the next morning, the car was gone.
According to valet records, the retrieval code had been used at 12:06 a.m., more than nine hours before the guest reported sending it, WSB-TV reported.
The system did not display the originating phone number, and the key remained listed as checked in — but was missing from the valet lockbox, police said.
The Savannah Police Department posted surveillance photos of the suspect on Facebook.
Authorities described him as a Black male between 20 and 30 years old.
The Savannah incident is not the first time someone has posed as a professional athlete to commit fraud.
Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and his alleged accomplice, Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, were arrested last month and charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after allegedly creating fictitious investments to defraud dozens of women across California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington.
Prosecutors said Love convinced female victims he was a wealthy 49ers player while Chan posed as his financial advisor, sending Love messages about purported investment opportunities.
Love allegedly forwarded those screenshots to his victims to convince them to send money to him or Chan.
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