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 vehicle.
The suspect was 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 August 14, according to a police report obtained by local authorities.
Investigators said the suspect told employees he was a professional basketball player with multiple vehicles at the hotel before getting into the car and driving off. Valet staff told police that each ticket issued was unique to a specific vehicle.
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The BMW was owned by a dealership and had been provided as a loaner vehicle for a hotel guest. The dealership later tracked the vehicle to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, prompting Savannah police to notify local authorities and have the vehicle listed as stolen in state and national databases.
Investigators subsequently discovered that the white 2025 Audi A5 the suspect was seen in before taking the BMW had also been reported stolen the previous day. The Audi was located unlocked in the hotel’s parking garage later that morning with no visible exterior damage, though it remains unclear how that vehicle was initially stolen.
The suspect has also been linked to another hotel valet theft in Savannah nearly two weeks prior. A guest at a Fairfield Inn left her black 2019 Toyota C-HR with the valet service on August 5, and when she attempted to retrieve it the next morning, the car was gone. Valet records indicated that the retrieval code had been used at 12:06 a.m., hours before the guest requested the vehicle. The system did not log the originating phone number, and while the key remained listed as checked in, it was missing from the valet lockbox
The Savannah Police Department posted surveillance photos of the suspect, describing him as a Black male between 20 and 30 years old.
The incident follows other recent cases of individuals posing as professional athletes for financial gain.
Last month, Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and his alleged accomplice, Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, were arrested and charged with wire fraud and conspiracy after allegedly creating fictitious investments to defraud dozens of women across California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.
Prosecutors stated Love convinced victims he was a wealthy San Francisco 49ers player while Chan posed as his financial advisor to solicit money.