CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Disgusting behavior of 'Sunday Bandit' has neighbors worried

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story and video contain graphic details of a sexual nature. Discretion is advised.

SALEM – It started with a missing piece of underwear.

Kent Sanderson’s 18-year-old daughter thought she may have misplaced it or it was lost in the laundry.

But when other clothing started disappearing from her bedroom on a regular basis, the Sanderson family realized a thief might be breaking in and stealing the clothes.

“It happened on numerous occasions,” Sanderson told EastIdahoNews.com during a recent interview at his home. “We started paying attention to other items in the home, but nothing else was ever taken except the clothing out of her room.”

Expensive jackets, shirts, underwear, pajamas and other items vanished from the bedroom – always on Sundays when the Sandersons were at church.

With the help of a friend, Sanderson set up a hidden camera inside his daughter’s room last summer.

A few weeks later, the camera captured the thief entering the room one Sunday morning.

The black and white video shows a man quickly pulling down his pants and rummaging through the teen’s dirty laundry.

He finds a piece of underwear and masturbates over the girls bed.

When he finishes, he takes the underwear and leaves the home – 14 minutes after entering the bedroom.

“You’ve got a thief, but then when you put sexual acts into this regarding my family -- that’s a sore subject,” Sanderson said.

The Sandersons instantly recognized the man in the video as 21-year-old Cody Polatis, a man living in their neighborhood.

The family called the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and handed over the video.

On Sept. 28, Polatis was charged with burglary, stalking and public display of offensive sexual material.

In court documents obtained by EastIdahoNews.com, Polatis admitted to taking the clothes. And when detectives asked if he intended on masturbating and then taking the clothing, Polatis responded, “Yes.”

The Sandersons' neighbors heard about the case, and many contacted the family.

“Several people would come to us and say, ‘He was in our home, he knocked on our door,’” Sanderson recalled. “I call him the 'Sunday Bandit' because he waits until people go to church, and as soon as they go to church, he goes to their home. If the doors are unlocked, he’ll enter.”

Before his arrest, Polatis had previous run-ins with the law.

In 2014 he was charged with trespassing after being found in the Rexburg Kmart dressing room after hours with women’s clothing.

Court documents show he pleaded guilty and was ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation in June 2014.

One year later, Polatis began breaking into the Sandersons' home. They figure he entered at least seven times over the course of several months, and they say he took more than $1,300 worth of clothing.