James Larsen wanted to make sure his tip may be of service to the investigation.
“I was second-guessing myself… But then I thought you know this is important. Any little bit helps, if I have one small piece of the puzzle and someone else does, they can piece that together,” said Larsen.
He noticed someone suspicious in his neighborhood Sunday, March 18.
Later that night, the Austin bomber placed his 4th explosive nearby.
“All of us were very alarmed with the bombing,” said Larsen.
So, restless, Larsen called the Austin Police tip line the next day.
“There was no response. It was busy signal. So, I called back a couple of minutes later and I was able to get through to someone. They took down information about what I had seen, but they didn’t take down any identifying information about me, phone number, address, so how would police follow up if they were to get back to me? So, I asked is there someone I can talk to about this,” said Larsen.
Larsen said the person on the other end of the phone told him to call Austin Police Department directly.
“So, I called the Austin Police Department. They fairly quickly forwarded me over to 911 dispatch,”
Dispatch said call FBI, according to Larsen. He did.
“I was told the wait time would be approximately 25 minutes,” said Larsen. “I thought wow, that’s a long time. I don’t know if my tip is really worth waiting 25 minutes to share. It could be nothing.”
“The FBI Hotline number (1-800-CALL-FBI) was never included in any materials provided to the media or published by the investigating agencies online or via social media. Nevertheless, the call center was prepared to receive calls and tips related to the investigation. The Call Center provided a recording to all callers which allowed them to select the Austin Bombing investigation as the subject of their calls. Calls related to the Austin Bombing investigation were given the highest priority, meaning, those calls were automatically routed to the top of the list and taken before all other calls,” said Special Agent Michelle Lee, San Antonio FBI Public Affairs Officer.
KVUE asked if other callers had similar experiences as Larsen.
“We don’t have enough information to determine whether the caller contacting your station had a call experience similar to other callers. We were unable to obtain any information regarding average wait time,” said Lee.
Lee pointed to a problem with the public assistance.
“A sampling of more than 40 calls made to a specific official at the FBI office in San Antonio revealed more 70% of the callers did not have any factual information; rather, these callers provided theories or ideas about how law enforcement could find the bomber. The large volume of theory/idea calls may have increased wait times for all callers, including those who had factual information,” said Lee.
Austin Police confirmed they, too, had a large amount of callers taking up resources offering suggestions instead of tips.
“This incident was unique to Austin. This case was very active and continued to remain fluid. When APD was seeking information about various things such as tips or videos we would provide a number for individuals to call. It’s important to keep in mind that these numbers were being flooded with tips and people telling us how to run the investigation. While all of that is important, the numbers provided in this situation should only be used for what was being asked. Like any critical incident, we will take a look at things that went well and things that need improvement,” said Anna Sabana, Public Information Manager for APD.
“I think (law enforcement was) really trying their hardest. It’s always good to reflect, what can be done better? Moving forward, what lessons can we learn? I think this is a good time for us now to look back,” said Larsen.
Austin Police reported on Twitter they received more than 12,500 calls within four days following the fourth explosion, including calls for suspicious packages.