FBI Goes on Fishing Trip After Call
Agents Follow Up Tip From Man Claiming Ties to Unabomber

It was either an elaborate hoax or another mysterious lead in the Unabomber case that took a team of FBI agents to the banks of the Spokane River.

Agents dug up a spot on the riverbank on Tuesday after a man claiming to be the “fishing buddy” of Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski called KHQ-TV late last week.

The anonymous caller wouldn’t leave a name, but told the television station that he was supposed to dig up a secret cache along the river if Kaczynski was arrested, sources say.

The FBI took Kaczynski into custody April 3 while searching his cabin 300 miles from Spokane in Lincoln, Mont.

The caller claimed he and Kaczynski were fond of fishing near the spot on the Spokane River, close to the U.S. Post Office Terminal Annex, sources say.

Taking the tip seriously, the FBI placed an advertisement in last weekend’s editions of The Spokesman-Review. It said: “Will Ted’s fishing buddy please call Jeff at the station?” The anonymous caller never called back, but senior FBI officials decided they couldn’t ignore a possible lead in the 17-year-old investigation of the Unabomber.

In searching the banks of the Spokane River, the FBI asked for assistance from an explosives-ordnance team from Fairchild Air Force Base.

Using metal detectors, a three-member explosives team and FBI agents went to the spot identified by the anonymous caller on Monday. The team returned Tuesday and began digging.

“We found iron pipe and other miscellaneous pieces of iron,” but nothing immediately links the items to the Unabomber, one FBI official said.

Publicly, the FBI isn’t saying Kaczynski ever visited Spokane.