Steven Aitken, the serial bank robbery suspect who at times seemed to be daring authorities to catch him, was arrested Monday in Daytona Beach after police got a tip from a woman who recognized his face from a TV crime-fighting show.
Aitken, 36, had a gun tucked in his waistband but was arrested without incident about 7:16 p.m. at the Travelers Inn, police said. He had been staying there at least four days, said Jock Tate, motel manager.
"When they took him down, they told him to get down on the ground, put his belly down, hands behind his back, not move a muscle," Tate said.
Tate said that as FBI agents and Daytona Beach police led him away, Aitken asked: "Why are you arresting me? I didn't do anything."
Aitken is suspected of robbing seven banks in Pinellas County, five in St. Petersburg.
Police say he usually stole a car, drove straight to the bank and later abandoned the vehicle. During one robbery, Aitken fired rounds into a bank drawer and cabinet. After another, police said, he shot at an officer before vanishing in a mobile home park.
Authorities were notified about a possible Aitken sighting Saturday when a Daytona Beach woman called police after she saw Aitken's face on America's Most Wanted.
Karla Millen 40, had known Aitken for 11/2 months and saw him around the motel.
"We've known him as Eric," she said.
After she called authorities Saturday, FBI agents arrived at the motel Monday.
While an FBI agent talked with motel manager Tate, Aitken unexpectedly showed up and knocked on a guest's door: two young men he had befriended.
"That's him," Tate told the FBI agent.
"The FBI said call 911," Tate said. "I dialed 911 and handed the FBI the telephone."
Tate then walked over to Aitken to make small talk.
"I sat down on a bench facing the parking lot and he sat down on the flower bed wall, facing the building and he was facing me," Tate said. "I was just basically bulls-------, trying to detain him until the Police Department got here."
Suddenly, FBI agents and police swarmed the motel.
On the ground, police searched Aitken. They found a gun in his waistband, two clips, a badge that resembled those used by law enforcement and money.
"My heart's still beating," said Millen, the Daytona Beach woman who recognized Aitken and called authorities.
Aitken did not fit the typical profile of a bank robber. He's a registered sex offender. He dressed well, and, unlike most bank robbers, he did not use holdup notes.
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 the youth.
When released in 2000, Aitken returned to St. Petersburg and worked at 7-Eleven and as a handyman for $50 a day.
As part of his parole, 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.
Daytona Beach police said Aitken was booked in the Volusia County Jail without bail.
