July 12 Barefoot Bandit UPDATE: Colton-Harris Moore has been arrested in the Bahamas.My old home state of Washington has long had a history of spawning notorious criminals. D.B. Cooper and Ted Bundy come to mind.
The latest notorious Washington criminal has become a bit of a folk hero to some in the northwest, due to his long run at avoiding arrest.
He is known as the "Barefoot Burglar" due to being spotted a time or two running away barefoot. The Barefoot Burglar is Colton Harris-Moore, often called Colt when he's not called the Barefoot Burglar.
In 2005, or thereabouts, Colt dropped out of high school and started his burglary career by breaking into homes on Camano Island. Camano Island is in the Puget Sound about 45 miles north of Seattle, 20 miles south of where I used to live in Mount Vernon. I know someone who lives on Camano Island. I'll have to ask if the Barefoot Burglar burgled her.
Colt's first Camano Island crime spree came to an end in 2007. He plead guilty to 3 counts of burglary. Less than a year later Colt escaped detention.
Soon thefts were being reported on the island again. Colt was spotted in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, but successfully ran into the woods, escaping arrest, to begin a much bigger crime spree that is still going on.
Colt is now wanted by 5 Washington counties.
Colt left Camano Island to go to the San Juan Islands where he broke into a lot of homes, was spotted and chased several times. I have not read how Colt got from one San Juan Island to the other. I doubt he used a ferry, because he'd be easily spotted. His island hopping must have been facilitated by the boats he stole.
Colt got off the islands, back to the mainland, to Bellingham, where he stole another boat and somehow made it from Bellingham to Point Roberts. To you non-Washingtonians, Point Roberts is a peninsula, accessed by land by crossing into Canada and then back in the U.S. at Point Roberts. It is a bit of the mainland that sticks below the 49th parallel, and thus is in America.
Colt has stolen 3 airplanes, landing one in Idaho, then stealing another, a Cesna 182, flying it back west, over the Cascade Mountains, running out of fuel, then crash landing near Granite Falls and then running into the woods. Granite Falls is nestled up against the Cascade foothills. I would think it'd be a difficult place to crash land.
On Sunday there was a burglary report in the Granite Falls area. Deputies searched the woods. A shot was fired. A SWAT team was called in. A Blackhawk helicopter was brought in by Homeland Security to aid another helicopter which had an infrared detection scanner.
Yet still, Colt runs free.
Three guys, Zack, Will and Jordan have set up a Colton-Harris Fan Club site on Facebook. Facebook took it down for awhile. It's now back up. Currently the Facebook Fan Club has 4,846 members. There are 3 discussion groups on the Fan Club, "Crimes against the rich don't count," "Tales of the Barefoot Burglar" and "What you NEED to know about Colton Harris-Moore."
The Colton-Harris Fan Club site describes itself with the following...
Colton Harris-Moore is Western Washington's new Jesse James (without the murders). Without a doubt one of the greatest and most notable outlaws to come from an otherwise boring area. Some of his greatest achievements include the Kamikaze theft and crash landing of 3 airplanes (with no flight training) as well as commandeering a couple boats. Let's hope that he remains healthy, free and at large for a long time! Fly Colton, Fly!
When Colton is finally caught I suppose he can pay for all the damage he's done by selling the movie rights to his story.
Spy satellites can watch us pick our noses in the dark, but we can't find a barefooted boy at large? How tragic.
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