In the early 1990s, when Robert Sandt first trekked through the palmetto scrub of what is now part of the western communities, he was hunting hogs and a good time with his buddies. Today, Sandt is here hunting lawbreakers as the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office captain overseeing District 15 (Acreage/Loxahatchee), District 17 (Loxahatchee Groves) and District 18 (Westlake).
Based out of Royal Palm Beach, Sandt’s command includes a large swath of the western communities. He took formal command on Feb. 12, replacing Capt. Craig Turner, who was shifted to District 16 in the City of Greenacres.
“One of the guys took me out [to The Acreage] and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is crazy.’ It was so wide open. There was nothing,” recalled Sandt, a New York native, of his first visit to the area all those years ago. “And I didn’t like tromping around, chasing after a hog all day long. I quickly realized this was a different lifestyle that people wanted to live, with their dune buggies and ATVs and everything else that goes with that.”…