STAFFORD, Va. — David Basye can laugh about it now, but for a few weeks he was left confused following a bizarre crime that targeted his car.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said a thief would take his car only to return it a few times before a suspect was finally arrested.
“To finally find out that it was taken night after night without my knowledge is wild and actually them bringing back is even crazier,” Basye told WUSA9. “It’s crazy. I can’t explain no other way.”
It all started on Sun, Oct. 6 just after 9:30 p.m. when a deputy responded to a missing vehicle report on Castlebury Court. Basye, who owns a Honda Insight, was perplexed to find that his car had disappeared without a trace. He assumed it was towed and set up a time to be picked up for work the next morning.
Then, the mystery deepened. Just hours later, on Monday morning, the deputy returned to the same home, but this time the car had mysteriously reappeared in the exact spot from which it had been taken. Oddly, nothing appeared to have been stolen from the car, and it was swiftly removed from the stolen vehicle list.
Basye admitted to leaving the car unlocked with a semi-broken spare key in a compartment.
That Tuesday around 2 a.m., Bayse said he noticed the car was stolen again. In a strange twist of fate, the thief returned the vehicle an hour later, leading to a foot chase between the car's owner and the suspect. The chase ended on Fair Oaks Avenue, where the victim lost sight of the thief.
At that point, he installed a trail camera.
“I saw it back because I was sitting in my living room and I proceeded to chase him down the road,” Bayse said. “I just screamed and told him to come here, and he just ran.”
Once again, nothing had been stolen from the vehicle, adding to the confusion surrounding the repeated thefts and returns.
Bayse installed home surveillance cameras and saw no incident until Oct. 16 when it spotted the car leaving once again.
Deputies were already on alert and took the driver into custody in the neighborhood.
“They were using this as a joyride, getting where they wanted and coming back and I had no knowledge,” Bayse said.
The driver, identified as G’avontai Mul-Key, 22, of Stafford, is accused of leaving behind a trail of blue fentanyl pills during his attempt to escape.
Mul-Key claimed he first stole a set of the vehicle’s keys when he noticed it was unlocked.
Mul-Key was discovered to have no driver’s license.
The passenger, identified as Carlos Shutts, 21, of Stafford, gave consent to be searched and was also discovered to be in possession of suspected fentanyl pills. During a more thorough search at the jail, he was found to be in possession of even more controlled substances.
Mul-Key was charged with two counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle, grand larceny, felony eluding, obstruction of justice, possession of controlled substances, driving without a license, and the traffic lane violation.
He was held at Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond. Shutts was charged with possession of controlled substances and felony by a prisoner. He was held on a $3,000 secured bond.
