While securing a drink of water for a thirsty young woman Thursday night of last week, Plato McSwain, Shelby taxi driver, had his car stolen. As yet the woman and the big seven-passenger Buick, which belonged to Mr. Zeb Costner, are at large, and the story of the larceny is one of the most unusual and “nervy” stunts ever related here.
How It Worked
Mr. McSwain, who drives the car for Mr. Costner, tells the episode about as follows: Early in the evening Thursday a young woman, apparently between 20 and 25 years of age, hired him for a short taxi drive here in town. Later in the night when he came from a show at the Princess theatre the woman was in the car—since she made away with the car her presence in it at that time can be accounted for. At the time she told McSwain that she motored to Shelby in a couple and that a man had borrowed it for a trip to Boiling Springs and thereupon hired the taxi driver for a trip to Boiling Springs. On the return trip, McSwain says, the woman spoke several times of being thirsty. Somewhere near the T.J. Holland place McSwain stopped the car and got out at a well to get her some water, leaving the motor running. While he was securing the water, he says the woman slipped over under the steering wheel and speeded up the motor, asking if the car was in gear and dashed off down the road at a high rate of speed, leaving the taxi driver staring at the cloud of dust coming up behind his stolen car.
The larceny took place about 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night and McSwain was forced to walk a mile or more to the home of Bud Edwards, who brought him to town, where the theft was reported to the officers. It is said that in coming to town McSwain noticed where the car had turned and headed towards Rutherfordton. Reports reaching officers Friday stated that a car resembling the Costner car and driven by a woman passed through Chesnee, South Carolina, early in the morning, headed south.
Officers and the taxi driver are of the opinion that the woman was Bonnie Davis. Some say that she is a dope addict and was in a “doped up” condition when she stole the car, otherwise officers cannot account for a stunt apparently nervy and foolish. The story about her having a coupe that had been driven out towards Boiling Springs is now thought to have been only a fanciful yarn. Some are also inclined to think that she was attempting to get away with the car when McSwain came from the theatre and found her in it.
The car, a seven-passenger Buick, was almost new and had been on the job about two months, it is said.
From the front page of The Cleveland Star, Shelby, N.C., Tuesday, March 24, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn97064509/1925-03-24/ed-1/seq-1/#words=MARCH+24%2C+1925
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