Aruba suspect Gary Giordano ran theft operation in Maryland in 2003

GERMANTOWN, Md. - Before Gary Giordano was at the center of the case involving the disappearance of Frederick’s Robyn Gardner in Aruba, he was the center of an organized retail theft operation in Montgomery County.  ABC2 News spoke exlusively with the detective behind the case.

Montgomery County Detective David Hill doesn't hang onto the files from every case he's handled. But for some reason he kept this one. [You held onto Gary Giordano’s file?] “I did. I did.”

It is the file for a man who's become infamous. But before August 2nd, Gary Giordano wasn't a name or face you'd probably recognize. Still when he made headlines in Aruba in connection with Robyn Gardner's disappearance, Detective Hill knew him right away. He says, "I went back to the office next day, pulled up the case file, looked at the picture. It was definitely the same guy."

Giordano was the same guy he tracked eight years ago as part of an organized retail theft operation carried out in Montgomery and Frederick Counties. Hill says Giordano would boldly load his cart at Target stores in the area and roll right out the front door, sometimes returning to do it all again the same day.

Giordano 's brush with the law in Montgomery County began back in 2003 began at a Target in Germantown, when he was busted shoplifting electronics on the surveillance cameras. Cops say he later sold the stolen gaming systems and DVD players on the internet.

Hill clearly remembers interviewing Giordano for the case, "He was an easy going guy. He wasn't a jerk. He would talk to us but he seemed like he was a step ahead of us. He didn't want to give us any information."

Investigators in Aruba have experience the same kind of silence as they explore Giordano's role in Gardner's disappearance and potential death. But Hill, who interviewed and investigated Giordano, has unique perspective on whether he could be capable of violence.

Hill says Giordano seemed like the kind of guy who avoided conflict. For instance, Hill says he'd simply run when he realized he was being watched by security staff inside the stores he ripped off, "Where some shoplifters don't mind a confrontation, putting their hands on you, having an altercation, as soon as he noticed them, he was quickly out of the store."

But justice was also swift in this matter. Giordano was eventually convicted on theft charges in Montgomery and Frederick Counties, although he dodged a bullet with suspended sentences. As to whether Giordano will be as lucky in this latest case, the detective who knew him before the national news, doesn't want to say. Hill explains, "I'd rather keep that to myself.”