The public loves an outlaw, often rooting for these charismatic criminals even as they
weave a trail of chaos across the country.
Who could forget the daring sky-high plane hijacking of the anonymous DB Cooper, who
collected his ransom money and escaped via parachute - never to be seen again?
Or the notorious Billy the Kid, who rose from being an orphaned petty crook to one of the
most terrifying gunfighters in the wild west?
But those days of wild crime sprees are long gone...right?
Not quite.
In the early 2000s, a notorious criminal terrorized the Pacific Northwest, committing countless
crimes of larceny, grand theft, and escapes from the authorities.
The only thing more shocking than his seemingly endless desire to break the law...was the
fact that he was only a kid.
The trouble started early for Colton Harris Moore when he was a boy growing up in Mount
Vernon, Washington.
He grew up with his parents, but his father Gordon was a drug addict and spent time in
prison before walking out on the family.
Neighbors worried that Colton’s mother wasn’t taking good care of him, and his teachers
were worried - he didn’t like to listen to instructions and was constantly getting
into fights.
When he talked to a therapist, he said his mother was a drunk who would break his things.
It wasn’t long before Colton would find more serious trouble.
Tired of living at home with his troubled mother, Colton was living on his own by the
age of seven.
He spent some of his time in the woods surrounding Mount Vernon, but there were more inviting
targets - the many vacation homes near the city.
He would break into them for supplies, essentially building himself a little camp in the woods.
It wasn’t long before the police caught up to him, and he became an unusually young
convict for possession of stolen property.
He had been arrested four times by thirteen, and with a young white criminal the authorities
are usually more interested in trying to help them stay out of trouble.
He got ten days in juvenile detention, but that included meetings with therapists who
said he had depression, attention deficit disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder.
They hoped his stays in juvie would set him on the straight and narrow.
Colton had other plans.
His petty crimes took a more serious turn when he was caught possessing a neighbor’s
stolen camcorder.
Eventually, he would be sentenced to a longer term of three months in a halfway house - but
that was too long for him to stay put.
One day in 2008, he simply walked away and disappeared back into the wild.
Colton Moore was 17 now, and he was ready to take his criminal campaign to the next
level.
The authorities of the Pacific Northwest were not ready to take on this precocious career
criminal.
Moore knew the area inside and out from his years slipping around the woods undetected.
Now that he planned to live the outlaw life, he had no problem breaking into countless
houses to get whatever he needed.
Sometimes he would take a bath.
Sometimes he would steal ice cream - even outlaws need their sweet treats.
Other times he would take advantage in more expensive ways - he once stole a homeowner’s
credit card and snuck on their computer to order high-end night vision goggles and a
can of bear mace - a good investment for someone living in the Washington woods.
But his tastes were getting more and more expensive.
Moore was Washington’s problem alone - until he wasn’t.
Soon, in states including Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, and even as far east as Iowa and
Illinois, the authorities were noticing a pattern.
Cars were going missing and showing up in completely different places.
And everywhere these stolen cars popped up, burglaries soon followed.
Authorities soon assumed that this mysterious burglar was taking cars from one place, driving
them to another and abandoning them, and picking up a new car in the area to drive on to parts
unknown.
Colton Moore had learned the criminal trade well, and this tactic made it very hard for
anyone to keep tabs on him - because they never knew what he’d be driving.
But his riskiest heists were still ahead of him.
Moore was suspected of over a hundred thefts, including some in Canada, and he stole speedboats
in addition to cars.
But he had a taste for dangerous games, and that led him to an obsession - with aircraft.
He picked up books and DVDs on how to fly small airplanes, and eventually escalated
to stealing privately owned planes and using them to fly to safety.
He even managed to rip off a celebrity, taking the Cessna owned by rock radio personality
and novelty musician Bob Rivers.
The plane was eventually found - in a Yakama Indian reservation site on tribal land.
But as extreme as his crimes got, Colton Harris Moore wasn’t all bad.
He liked stealing vehicles, making fast escapes, and taking what he needed from people’s
homes.
But there were things he didn’t do in his crime spree.
He never hurt anyone.
He never used a weapon to steal a car.
He never ripped off anyone just for money, only stealing essentials and supplies.
And he even seemed to have a soft spot for animals.
A veterinary clinic about two hours south of Seattle was surprised one day when they
found a note from Colton in 2010, saying he had some extra money and wanted to help them
take care of the animals.
Surprisingly, it was signed, and even referred to himself by a nickname - the Barefoot Bandit,
which he had picked up by reportedly committing some of his heists barefoot.
Colton Harris Moore was getting bold - and that would be his undoing.
Colton made a critical mistake when he started stealing vehicles and driving them across
state lines, and especially when he started stealing aircraft.
That got the attention of the federal government, and for the first time there was a concentrated
law enforcement effort at tracking him down.
In July 2010, a federal Judge in Washington handed down an extensive indictment.
Not only did it charge Moore with a federal crime related to his theft of a plane from
Idaho, but it put out a ten thousand dollar bounty for information leading to his arrest.
The walls were closing in on Colton’s crime spree - so it was time for his most daring
escape yet.
The Bloomington, Indiana airport wasn’t usually a hub of activity, but it became the
center of a federal investigation when a Cessna 400 airplane went missing - matching the pattern
of thefts of the barefoot bandit.
This attracted even more attention when the plane was found crashed in the waters by the
Bahamas.
Had the pilot survived?
No one was sure at first - but they got a clue when a series of break-ins happened on
Great Abaco Island.
Colton had fled the country, and was now continuing his crime spree in the Caribbean island nation.
But not for long.
It was one week after the plane disappeared in Indiana, and authorities zeroed in on Harbour
Island in the Bahamas.
The local officers had been keeping track of thefts about the island, and when they
found a power boat stolen from another island, they were on the trail.
Things moved fast, as Colton attempted to flee on a stolen boat.
Police took aim - and shot out the motor of his boat!
Colton was stranded and surrounded, but he wasn’t going easily.
He threw his computer into the water, making sure his secrets would sink to the bottom
of the sea, and pulled out a gun.
In a tense standoff, the police managed to talk him out of shooting himself, and he was
taken into custody.
He had planned to flee to Cuba, which had no extradition treaty, but instead he would
be headed back to the United States to face trial for a long list of crimes.
But the drama in his case was far from over.
Five people, including three police officers and a security guard, split the reward money
for Moore’s capture, and Moore knew he was caught red-handed.
After being charged for illegal entry in the Bahamas and paying a fine, he was deported
to the United States.
At his trial, he was sent back to Washington to face federal and local charges.
After a partner of his with the unique name of Harley Davidson Ironwing pled guilty, Moore
had little chance of success at trial.
He ultimately decided to plead guilty to all the counts against him and hope for leniency.
It turns out, Colton Moore’s good luck wasn’t quite over yet.
While the judge saw a 20-year-old convicted of serious crimes, she also took into consideration
his troubled childhood and his statements of remorse.
While she did sentence him to seven years in prison - less than the ten years the prosecutors
wanted - she also allowed him to serve them consecutively with his state prison sentence,
allowing him to be out of prison before his twenties were over.
Moore vowed to make the most of his time in prison, bettering himself - by studying aeronautical
engineering.
What could go wrong with the Barefoot Bandit learning how to build his own plane?
Colton’s flashy crimes and young age led many people to compare him to an even more
high-profile outlaw - the legendary Frank Abagnale, who started a crime spree of forgery
and impersonation when he was only 15 in the 1960s.
Abagnale posed as a doctor, a prison official, a lawyer, and even an airplane pilot several
times before he was finally caught - even escaping from federal prison once.
While his crimes eventually caught up to him, he cut a plea deal with the federal government
and went to work for them - serving only five years in prison and beginning a lifelong career
as an associate of the FBI.
His story was even made into a movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio.
So will a similar fate await the Barefoot Bandit?
Outlook so far is...cloudy.
Moore served less than five years of his seven-year sentence, being released from custody in 2016
at only twenty-five years old.
He went to a halfway house in Seattle, was given a job as a clerk by his defense attorney,
and had to start paying off the $129,000 in money he owes to the many, many people he
stole from.
He even made an attempt to raise money for flight school - but his parole officer put
the kibosh on that, ordering the social media campaign taken down and any money raised to
be sent to pay his debts.
The Barefoot Bandit would have to wait longer before getting back to the air.
That didn’t mean his reputation wasn’t still sky-high.
Colton Harris Moore may have been caught and sent to pay his debt to society, but he had
already become immortal.
His daring thefts, unique shoeless style, and animal-friendly nature led to him gaining
a huge fanbase.
During his crime spree, websites were started by his fans, T-shirts were printed with his
face on it, and folk songs were written about him - both supporting him, and by locals from
the Bahamas complaining about him.
They even tried to raise money to hire a bounty hunter.
While Moore can’t earn any money off his story due to his plea deal, a book was written
about him, and the rights were quickly sold to 20th Century Fox while Colton was still
on the run.
In 2014, a documentary about the case premiered at a film festival and featured interviews
with his mother and the FBI agents who captured him.
A Canadian documentary soon followed, as he had picked up a lot of attention during his
brief foray into the county.
All these were done without Colton’s direct involvement.
But what of the man behind the crime spree?
Where is he now?
Colton was never one to shy away from the limelight, and even while still in prison
he briefly released a controversial blog going into his political views.
And now that he’s out, he’s stayed out of trouble with the law - for the longest
stretch in his life - and was looking forward to getting started on a promising career in
public speaking.
There was just one problem - his probation.
The terms of his release meant he had to obey strict travel restrictions until 2019.
When he asked a judge to release him early, he brought dozens of letters of support including
from a famous conservative radio host - and the man who owned the airplane he crashed
in the Bahamas.
His probation was set to expire in late 2019.
And that means the Barefoot Bandit could be coming to an airport near you.
For more on other notorious cases where kids got into trouble with the law, check out “Weird
Times Police Arrested Kids”, or check out this video instead.