s police in Austin, Texas, desperately searched for the person who had left explosive packages all over the city, killing two people, they realized that the bombs had something in common: they were being made from common household ingredients. So investigators hit the area's stores, scanning receipts and looking for clues.
"Agents fanned out throughout the city of Austin going to big box retail stores as well as locally owned stores trying to determine whether or not there were suspicious purchases," Tony Plohetski, an investigative reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, told CNN's "New Day." They were "going through receipts and going through sales records from those stores."
That worked. Plohetski said the search of the receipts provided investigators with "critical evidence."
They now had a person of interest: now identified as Mark Anthony Conditt.
Federal search warrants were then used to get the man's IP address, which showed that he'd been making "suspicious" Google searches, Plohetski said.
Police also developed a sketch from witness interviews.
Seen on videotape
But the big break came when Conditt went to a FedEx store in south Austin and shipped an explosive device — and the whole thing was captured on security video.
"Police say that they used that as the final piece to put all of this together, really in the past 24 hours," Plohetski said.
Convinced that this was their man, police worked quickly. Late Tuesday night they used cell phone technology to track Conditt to a hotel in Round Rock, about 20 miles north of Austin, according to the American-Statesman. There, they spotted the vehicle witnesses had told investigators he was driving.
Police and federal agents surrounded the hotel didn't move in immediately. Since they were dealing with a suspected serial bomber, they wanted backup.
"(We were) awaiting the arrival of our tactical teams because we wanted to have ballistic vehicles here so we could attempt to take this suspect into custody as safely as possible," Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said in a news conference early Wednesday.
They were still awaiting the arrival of those teams when, some time later, Conditt took off in his vehicle. Police followed him as he drove on the service road along I-35, whizzing by the various restaurants, gas stations and hotels. Then the vehicle came to a stop in a ditch. A SWAT team cautiously approached.

PrattRules wrote:I made a big mistake deadlifting yesterday.

JUburton wrote:

PrattRules wrote:I made a big mistake deadlifting yesterday.

Terrible feeling. Just one extra push/movement you shouldnt have made and you know it's going to hurt for weeks.

Napalm wrote:

JUburton wrote:

PrattRules wrote:I made a big mistake deadlifting yesterday.

Terrible feeling. Just one extra push/movement you shouldnt have made and you know it's going to hurt for weeks.

if you don't crawl toward your bathtub every morning, then you'll never know what you're made of

CalvinBall wrote:good police work is fascinating. imagine just sitting there for days looking at receipts from thousands of people from multiple sam's clubs. and then just finding the first piece. then the next. has to wild work.

ReadingPhilly wrote:Phenomenal back to back Seinfelds this morning. The Chinese restaurant into the phone message.

ReadingPhilly wrote:Thought the board would be hopping, but it’s a dead board.

1 wrote:https://g.co/kgs/pwmrGQ

I couldn’t believe this was so long ago (beltway sniper)

Titlehungry wrote:

1 wrote:https://g.co/kgs/pwmrGQ

I couldn’t believe this was so long ago (beltway sniper)

I remember following it on TV now I live like 5 minutes from Bowie where one of the attacks happened