QUILCENE — A multi-agency group of law enforcement officers has unearthed a cache of stolen goods, including firearms, in Olympic National Forest near Quilcene.
The seven fully loaded storage containers found Friday morning had been hidden by a convicted bank robber who had been on the run for the past five years before his arrest last year, according to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Bradley Steven Robinett, 46 — who was featured on America’s Most Wanted in 2011 — pleaded guilty in January to escape, being a felon in possession of a firearm and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart sentenced him Monday to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, as well as $12,886 in restitution.
As part of his guilty plea, Robinett told investigators where he had stashed dozens of firearms and other stolen goods.
The cache found near Quilcene is the third attributed to Robinett since early March. Others were found in Oregon and near Lake Sammamish.
At about 11 a.m., the joint law enforcement team removed the storage containers that had been buried 1 to 2 feet underground in a heavily forested area roughly 50 yards off the closest overgrown road.
The cache was processed by the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Forest Service and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
It was covered by a tarp visible to passers-by, authorities said.
Robinett was released in August 2009 after serving seven years at a federal prison in Arizona, where he had lived. Information was not available about his hometown.
He had been convicted of robbing banks in Bremerton and Tigard, Ore.
He was sent to Seattle on his own recognizance with court orders to report to a designated halfway house within two days.
Instead of going to the halfway house as required, he absconded.
He then began a crime spree in Washington and Oregon, eluding police on at least three occasions before he was arrested in Hillsboro, Ore., on June 2, 2014.
On March 10, a joint team located the first of Robinett’s three caches: a roughly 8-foot-by-10-foot underground bunker located in King County public wetlands around Lake Sammamish, behind a housing complex.
More than 30 full storage containers were removed by the FBI Seattle Division’s Evidence Response Team, ATF and Sammamish Police Department in partnership with the King County Sheriff’s Office and State Patrol.
On March 25, another joint team located the second cache on private property in northwest Portland, Ore.
Approximately five storage containers buried underground were removed by the ATF, FBI and Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon.
In September 2009, Robinett was involved in a high-speed chase with Bainbridge Island police and eventually escaped on foot, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He reportedly left behind a pistol and ballistic vest stolen from the Seattle Police Department years earlier.
In November 2009, he was seen driving a stolen car at a park-and-ride in Bellevue.
He reportedly attempted to ram a State Patrol patrol car before once again escaping.
On June 2, 2014, Robinett was arrested in Hillsboro.
He was located after Hillsboro police officers patrolling a Fred Meyer parking lot using an automated license plate reader system to check license plates got a ping on a 2014 Kia Sorrento SUV stolen out of King County.
Officers waited for the driver of the vehicle, later identified as Robinett, and arrested him when he returned a short time later.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
