The Perfect Opportunity For Campus Crime

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Police believe the robbers waited for an opportunity such as a snowy night to rob GMU's Innovation Hall.

Nearly a foot of snow covered Fairfax, Virginia on February 12, 2006. George Mason University, a large school in the area, closed its campus for the day. The cleaning crew, which usually stays on campus until 4:30 a.m., finished their shift early to avoid the inevitable icing on campus roads, while GMU police were out responding to snow-related calls like accidents and power outages.

The campus was completely quiet with no one around -- except for three thieves who were hard at work.

Cops say that night; three young bandits crept into Innovation Hall, a technology building in the school, carrying a master key and a bag of tools. Cops say the bandits -- two young males and one young female -- worked their way through the building floor by floor, stealing nearly one hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment. Among the most valuable equipment stolen were six overhead projectors in several classrooms -- worth $7,800 each.

The next day, professors and students arrived at Innovation Hall to find their classrooms in disarray. They noticed equipment was missing, and things were clearly out of place -- but no one realized the extent to which the school had been robbed overnight, until police began their investigation.

Bandits Overlook New Security Cameras

GMU Police quickly realized they had some amazing clues -- thanks to surveillance cameras throughout the building. But they'd come very close to not having any clues at all. Cops say the bandits, extremely professional in their planning, had come a month or so in advance of the robberies to case the building. They'd noted each and every existing surveillance camera during their reconnaissance, and during the actual heist, they either disabled them or turned them toward the wall to remain unseen. What the thieves didn't know, however, was that GMU had installed new cameras in Innovation Hall just two weeks before the robbery. The bandits had no idea the new cameras were working, and were recording their every move.

Surveillance Gives Cops Big Clues

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The GMU bandits focused on stealing projectors like this one -- worth $7,800.

Police were able to gather key clues about the trio by analyzing their appearances and mannerisms in the footage. Cops say the female suspect is approximately 5'6" tall, and is wearing an oversized gray hooded sweatshirt with the number 78 on the front. Police say there is also illegible writing above the number that not even photo enhancement could help them read. Police also noted that the female had a very peculiar way of walking on the tips of her toes.

Throughout the video, the female never revealed her identity -- she covered her face the entire time, and was the only thief who appeared to notice the new surveillance cameras. The female and one of the males stayed together for most of the robbery, and appeared to be bickering with one another at times -- leading police to wonder if they were perhaps a couple. That male suspect is about 6' tall and wore a blue hooded sweatshirt with tan pants and sneakers.

At one point in the video, the female seemed to tip him off about one of the new cameras, because he backed up and looked directly into it -- unmasked. The result was a photo so clear that cops say it was practically a mug shot.

Meanwhile, the third thief appeared to act as a guard, waiting outside the classrooms while the other two removed equipment. The security cameras never really got a clear image of this third suspect, but police believe he is a white male, between 5'6" and 5'8", who was wearing a blue hat and tan pants the night of the robbery. 

Heist Linked To Organized Crime?

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Police aren't sure whether the thieves are linked to organized crime -- or if they're just a bunch of kids who stole the projectors and other equipment to play video games.

Cops say the way the bandits robbed the school building is a major clue in and of itself. According to police, it was almost as if the trio had a "shopping list" of items to steal. They knew exactly what they were after, and carried very specific tools to help them get those items. In one computer lab, the bandits bypassed the whole room of Dell computers and went straight for overhead projectors. It seemed the bandits were targeting specific equipment for a reason.

At first, police thought the thieves were probably students. But after hanging posters with the bandits' faces around the school, they received very little information -- and cops starting thinking the bandits had no connection to the school or area.

But investigators weren't discouraged -- and soon found themselves dealing with an interesting new lead.

Other schools had experienced similar thefts, such as George Washington University, American University, Michigan State, and Harvard. When GMU detectives started looking into the details of those thefts, they realized there could be a connection to something much larger -- the Russian Mafia.

Some of the equipment stolen from another University that had been hit showed up in a Baltimore City, Md. pawn shop believed to be a front for the Russian Mob. Although none of the goods stolen from GMU have turned up in those pawn shops, police are not ruling out the possibility that the thefts might be linked to organized crime.

The Video Gamers Angle

At the same time, police are also not ruling out the possibility that the trio were stealing the equipment for their own personal use. Cops say they learned in their investigation that overhead projectors are popular in the world of video gamers. Using the projectors to play games make them closer to life-size, and police say it's possible the bandits stole the equipment for this purpose.

Wanted For:

• Grand Larceny , Fairfax , VA ; Feb 13, 2006
• Possession of Burglarious Tools , Fairfax , VA ; Feb 13, 2006
• Burglary , Fairfax , VA ; Feb 13, 2006

(Information valid as of January 7, 2008)

Associated Persons:

Suspected George Mason University Bandit #3
Fugitive
»More information

Television Airings:

• »August 26, 2006

Good Detective Work Leads To Arrests

Police have arrested Curtis White in connection with the robbery at GMU, as well as on other college campuses.
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»More capture photos

After months of tedious police work, authorities finally got the break they needed to figure out the mystery of the GMU Bandits. When a robbery occurred at Washington and Lee University, the police there remembered seeing reports in the news and on America's Most Wanted about a similar robbery at George Mason University.

Once the cops from both colleges began talking, they realized just how many similarities there were between the robberies. They began looking at pawn shops in Baltimore, and discovered that somebody had come in recently and sold used equipment that could be linked to the campus robberies.

Once the police had learned necessary information, it didn't take them long to track down the person who had sold the merchandise. The store owner said that a man by the name of Adam Godfrey came into the store and claimed to be selling the equipment for his boss, and asked that the check be made out to his boss' name. The police were able to find the "boss" who the check was made out to and he quickly pointed them in the direction of the person who cashed it. Curtis White, 23, was the man who had claimed to be Adam Godfrey.

It was this arrest that broke the case wide open. A few days later, police were able to arrest two mores suspects, Jason Cutler, 24, and Crystal Davis, 22. Cutler, Davis and White all roomed together while they were students at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. A fourth roommate, John McLean, has also been named a suspect. McLean is currently a fugitive on drug charges in James City County, Virginia.

Now police are looking into similar robberies at several campuses along the East Coast. They are also looking into the possibility that several more individuals may be involved in the string of robberies.