The next day , police received a phone call from a woman claiming to be Reso 's kidnapper , directing them to a letter in a highway street sign . In it , the kidnappers claimed to be members of the Greenpeace Environmentalist group who were furious at Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill three years earlier , as well as the 1985 deliberate Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior that killed Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira . The note demanded $ 18.5 million in used $ 100 bills for Reso 's release . The money was to be put into several Eddie Bauer laundry bags and dropped outside a restaurant on River Road . Although the FBI had the money ready and waited outside the restaurant for over an hour , the kidnappers never showed up
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Arthur Seale