FBI: Bunker of 'America's Most Wanted' Perp Found

Bradley Steven Robinett, 46, apparently set up shop near a lake in Washington state
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2015 11:16 AM CDT
FBI: Bunker of 'America's Most Wanted' Perp Found
Sgt. Peter Horvath from the King County Sheriff's Office inspects the mold-covered vault, Tuesday, March 10, 2015, near Lake Sammamish, Wash.   (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Mark Harrison)

Using clues that "read almost like a childhood treasure hunt," local police and federal agents have uncovered what they believe was a fugitive's underground bunker near Washington's Lake Sammamish, KOMO reports. Authorities say they think the moldy, garbage-strewn hideout was at some point built and used by 46-year-old Bradley Steven Robinett, a convicted bank robber who fled his Seattle supervised-release program more than five years ago. Robinett—who was featured on America's Most Wanted in 2011, per KOMO—was arrested in June in Oregon and pleaded guilty in January to charges of escape, possessing a firearm as a felon, and interstate transport of a stolen vehicle, for which he'll be sentenced in May, KIRO 7 reports.

Robinett was released from an Arizona prison in 2009 after a seven-year stint for bank robbery, and instead of going to a halfway house as required, he simply disappeared. He continued his crime spree in Washington and Oregon, KOMO notes, and even came close to being caught at least two other times before his 2014 capture, but he eluded cops. (KIRO says he got away from them a third time ... via kayak.) An ATF agent helping search the wooded area near Lake Sammamish yesterday noticed a piece of wood that seemed amiss, and when officials moved it, they discovered the opening to the 10-by-8-foot bunker, the Sammamish Review reports. Although officials seem confident the bunker is Robinett's, they're not sure when he may have stayed there: The Review notes the site seems to have been abandoned for a decade or so. (Secret bunkers reportedly built for Mussolini were opened in the fall.)

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