DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Don’t steal.

But if you’re going to steal, don’t return to the same locations to commit your crimes. And if you’re going to return to the same locations, don’t keep souvenirs of your thefts. And if you’re going to keep souvenirs, for heaven’s sake don’t let yourself get caught on camera.

Because if you steal long enough, and you return to the same locations, and you keep souvenirs, and you get caught on camera … well, son, you’re pretty much screwed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present the story of the RV Bandit. It’s a tale that spans decades, involving dozens of crime scenes at countless racetracks, hundreds of victims, one Hollywood star and one thorough ass-kicking. It’s a tale of a million-dollar heist, one wallet at a time. And naturally, it’s centered in Florida.

Five days before this year’s Daytona 500, the United States Secret Service presented the city of Daytona Beach with a check for $188,000. It marked one of the final chapters in a story that began more than a quarter-century ago in an infield in Daytona International Speedway. Or perhaps Atlanta Motor Speedway. Or maybe any of a dozen or so other racetracks across the country.

What’s known is this: Sometime in the late 1980s, a traveling salesman by the name of Steven Garry Sanders wandered into an empty RV or team hauler parked at a racetrack and pocketed a wallet. Then he did it again. And again. And again. Same routine, different track, month after month, year after year.

“Pick a raceway, he was there,” said Robert Fultz, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, “and he probably committed a burglary.”

Sanders is a tall, heavyset white guy, which means he was like hay in the haystack of a racetrack. Throngs of anonymous heavyset white guys roam the grounds of every track, some working security, some cleaning up, some helping the race teams, some hanging out and taking in the spectacle. And some taking much more than that.

Sanders’ routine was brilliant in its simplicity: First, visit a track during preliminaries or lower-level events, where security was lighter. Second, act like you belong; act like anywhere you are, that’s where you ought to be. Third, watch the crowd, and when race teams start moving toward the starting line for the beginning of the race, swoop in behind them and sneak into their RVs. Fourth, take advantage of systemic weaknesses for maximum profit.

RVs “are always unlocked, because you’ve got 25 or 30 guys going in and out all the time,” said Det. Scott Frantz of the Daytona Beach Police Department. “Firesuits don’t have pockets, so guys would leave their wallets, their Rolexes right there in the motorhome. [Sanders] would never grab anything like a laptop, nothing that he couldn’t fit into his pocket.”

Frantz began investigating Sanders as a patrolman on the Daytona Beach police department in the mid-1990s, working robbery detail at Daytona International Speedway. Sanders had been on the department’s radar for years; accurate police sketches already sat in the P.D.’s filing cabinets.

Track security everywhere from Daytona to Atlanta had suspicions – when you’ve got literally dozens of people every weekend reporting thefts, you know something’s up. But police could never catch Sanders, who threaded in and out of RVs and team haulers like a ghost, race after race, year after year.

Frantz began developing a profile of Sanders, hoping to figure out how exactly he was staying so far ahead of law enforcement. Up until 2000, Sanders used stolen credit cards to purchase merchandise like appliances and laptops. By 2000, the gift card economy was in full swing, and Sanders altered his approach, flipping plastic to plastic. And when it became clear he was crossing state lines, Frantz brought Fultz and the Secret Service on board.

“He would buy gift cards at a Wal-Mart near Daytona, then launder them at a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville,” Fultz said. “He would exchange them for smaller and smaller values. And the trail would always end somewhere in Georgia.”

View photos Steven G. Sanders (Alachua County Sheriff’s Department) More

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