Jefferson County Sheriff's officials are combing through a cache of “criminal accessories and stolen goods” recovered last week from a heavily forested Clallam County site in the Olympic National Forest northwest of Quilcene.

“It was believed at the time [of recovery] that there was possible stolen property, but it was unknown which jurisdiction it was stolen from,” said detective Mark Apeland, adding that so far he does not believe any of the items were stolen from within Jefferson County.

In conjunction with the Seattle division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Seattle field division of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office unearthed Friday morning, May 22 seven fully loaded storage containers buried 1 to 2 feet underground.

This cache is one of three – others in Sammamish, Washington and Portland, Oregon were discovered on March 10 and March 25, respectively – that convicted bank robber Bradley Steven Robinett lead law enforcement to uncover as part of a plea deal.

Robinett, 46, who had been featured on “America's Most Wanted” in 2011, had been on the run for the past five years before his arrest in June 2014 in Hillsboro, Oregon.

He pleaded guilty in January 2015 to escape, being a felon in possession of a firearm and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

On May 18, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 12 years in prison. Judge James L. Robart imposed three years of supervised release following prison and $12,886 in restitution.

Jewelry in bags and various identification documents were among the apparently stolen items and survival gear, such as firearms, tarps, tools, fuel and water purification devices, said Apeland, a 15-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office.

“Usually thieves only put jewelry in bags because it is stolen, but survival gear can be harder to identify as stolen,” he said. “It is rare to locate them [caches of stolen property in rural areas], but compared to others the content is pretty common.”

Apeland said Robinett has no criminal history in Jefferson County, according to a quick database search dating back to 2000.

CACHES

On March 10, a joint team located the first of Robinett’s three caches: a roughly 8-by-10-foot underground bunker located in King County public wetlands near Lake Sammamish, behind a housing complex.

More than 30 full storage containers were removed by the FBI Seattle Division’s Evidence Response Team, the ATF, the Sammamish Police Department, in partnership with the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol.

Then, on March 25, another joint team located a second cache on private property in northwest Portland. Approximately five storage containers buried underground were removed by ATF, the FBI and the Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon.

On May 22, the final cache was processed by the FBI, ATF, the U.S. Forest Service and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. It was located in a heavily forested area roughly 50 yards off the closest overgrown road. One of the areas where the storage containers were buried was covered by a tarp visible to passers-by.

HISTORY

Having been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2004 upon his conviction for bank robbery, Robinett absconded in August 2009 while traveling by bus from federal prison in Arizona to Seattle under supervised release. He was supposed to report to a halfway house, but never did.

Robinett twice escaped law enforcement during run-ins in September and November of 2009.

In addition to his bank robbery conviction, Robinett has prior felony convictions in King and Clallam counties for possession of stolen property, as well as convictions in King County for unlawful possession of a machine gun, car theft and burglary.

“This defendant left a dangerous wake wherever he went – for the law enforcement officials who tried to apprehend him, and the public who lived near his stashes of weapons and other stolen goods,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.

On June 2, 2014, Hillsboro police patrolling a Fred Meyer parking lot with an automated license plate reader pinged on a Kia with license plates stolen in Portland. The car’s VIN number linked to a vehicle that had been reported stolen in King County, Washington.

The police officers waited for the driver to return to the vehicle and subsequently arrested Robinett without incident.

Robinett was jointly investigated by the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Washington State Patrol, the Bainbridge Island Police Department and the Hillsboro Police Department.

The FBI requests the public’s assistance in keeping an eye out for other caches that are similar to these.

ANOTHER CASE

Authorities also are asking the public to be on the lookout for what they call “murder kits” that admitted serial killer Israel Keyes told investigators he had hidden in various locations around the country. The kits contain, among other items, weapons and cash that came from bank robberies he committed to support his criminal activities.

The stashed items provided cover for Keyes: He didn’t have to risk boarding an airplane with a weapon or using credit cards that could later connect him to a crime in a particular area, authorities said.

“Our hope is that locating these caches may provide clues to other murder victims. If anyone has information about a possible cache, they should not approach the location and [should] call local law enforcement immediately,” a spokesperson said.

Any tips related to Keyes may also be sent to the FBI’s Seattle Division at 206-622-0460.