Eight months into the hunt for Steven Aitken, officials still don't know much about the Pinellas bank robber.
By LEANORA MINAI
Published August 23, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Maybe he's hopping from motel to motel.
Maybe he's living outside Pinellas County.
Maybe Steven Aitken is feeding a drug habit with the thousands of dollars from his bank robberies.
"This guy, I don't know what his story is," Pinellas sheriff's Sgt. Tony Vinson said after Aitken's last heist Aug. 13. "Sometimes, it's best not to get confused with why and how. It'll keep you up at night."
Eight months into the hunt, investigators are no closer to catching the serial bank robber. Anxious to put an end to the robberies, sheriff's deputies have mistaken two men for Aitken, holding one at gunpoint.
On Friday, a task force of federal, state and local police agencies met to brainstorm and will raise the reward to $20,000, hoping money will generate more awareness and tips.
A criminal profiler from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has studied Aitken, and retired FBI agents consulted by the St. Petersburg Times said Aitken will not give up without a fight.
"This is not going to end peacefully," said William Rehder, who investigated bank robberies in Los Angeles for the FBI for 31 years. "My guess is this is going to go down in a really violent way."
As Aitken grows more brazen, some bank customers aren't making lobby transactions.
"Maybe I look around a little bit more," said Jeannie Lestini, 38, a SouthTrust customer.
Aitken, 36, does not fit the typical profile of a bank robber, experts say. He's a registered sex offender. He dresses well, and he does not arrive armed with only a holdup note.
A former St. Petersburg resident, Aitken spent 10 years in state prison after a conviction on charges of kidnapping a St. Petersburg boy and fondling himself in front of him.
When he was released in 2000, Aitken came back to St. Petersburg and worked at 7-Eleven and as a handyman for $50 a day. He had to stay out of trouble for 10 years or return to prison. Last winter, after cocaine was found in a drug test for his probation, Aitken went on a crime tear, stealing thousands of dollars from employers and an aunt.
"I think basically he's robbing banks just to get money," said Clinton Van Zandt, a retired FBI agent who worked in the agency's Behavioral Science Unit. "He saw nothing in his future that was going to take him past $50 a day."
All seven of the bank robberies, which began Jan. 14, have been in Pinellas County, five in St. Petersburg. Aitken usually steals a car, drives straight to the bank and later abandons the vehicle. During one robbery, Aitken fired rounds into a bank drawer and cabinet. After another, he shot at an officer before vanishing in a mobile home park.
"The concern is he continues to escalate his use of force - the most recent being he took an elderly lady and pointed a gun at her head," said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney.
Aitken's clean-shaven face is always visible, and surveillance cameras capture the pressed creases in his button-down shirt sleeves. Police do not think he is addicted to drugs.
"He's always been spiffy," said Vinson, the sheriff's sergeant. "He takes a lot of pride in his personal appearance. This is not your typical person you would suspect to be under the influence."
Rehder, the retired FBI agent, said bank robbers can become as intoxicated from robbing banks as from taking drugs. That was the case with Eddie Chambers Dodson, the most prolific individual bank robber in FBI history, Rehder said. A heroin addict, Dodson robbed 72 banks.
"It's an adrenaline rush," said Rehder, co-author of Where The Money Is. "You're putting your life on the line for the two minutes you're in the bank. There's an addiction. It's like extreme sports."
Investigators are baffled over how Aitken eludes detection.
"I just have to believe that somebody, somewhere has got someone living in the back of their property or has seen him at a motel or an apartment complex," said Bartlett, the chief assistant state attorney.
Investigators say some people who think they have seen Aitken wait a few days to call, which is no help.
"Call 911 right then," said St. Petersburg Detective James Shakas.
Two times this month, Pinellas sheriff's deputies thought they had Aitken.
On Aug. 11, a patron of a Madeira Beach bar flagged down a deputy. He said a man in the bar looked like a photo he had seen of Aitken. Deputies went to the bar and showed the bartender and disc jockey a photo of Aitken.
Four robbery detectives converged on a beach motel, where the man was staying. It turned out to be Stephen Debenedictis, 40, a commercial fisherman.
"I had to do a double-take," said Vinson, the sheriff's sergeant.
At 11:46 a.m. Thursday, a sheriff's deputy tried to stop a motorist who did not have a license tag on his car, which fit Aitken's method of operation, said Tim Goodman, the sheriff's spokesman. The driver also had short brown hair. He sped away from the deputy, then jumped out and ran into woods. The deputy held the man at gunpoint.
Said Goodman, "It just struck him as possibly being Aitken."
