Colton Harris-Moore, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs

[Clintonista2]

In the forests and remote islands around Seattle, police are setting traps for a barefoot teenage outlaw who has eluded them for nearly two years.

Police say 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, whose escapades are turning him into a folk legend, is a one-man crime wave, responsible for 50 burglaries as well as stealing light aircraft, which he taught himself to fly from video games, and several speedboats.

He lives in the woods, shuns shoes and catches his own food. His only technological aid is a pair of thermal-imaging goggles to hunt at night and his weakness is pizzas, which he asks to be delivered at the edge of the woods.

For some Harris-Moore is a modern Butch Cassidy: a surprisingly agile 6ft 5in cat burglar who thanks his victims by leaving them notes and cheeky photographs of himself, which have sold for £300 on eBay.

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In April 2008, after being sent to a juvenile detention centre, he complained that the beds were too short for his lanky frame and went on the run.

Police believe he fled to Canada and then, a few weeks ago, came back across the border to Idaho where he stole a Cessna 182 and flew to Seattle. He crash-landed in a forest clearing and walked away with cuts and bruises.

Since then he has been accused of stealing other planes for hops around the islands in the Puget Sound, including another Cessna belonging to a disc jockey who vented his frustration on radio, saying: “He still doesn’t know how to land a plane in one piece.”

He evaded a police pursuit by crashing a Mercedes-Benz into a roadside gas storage tank, using the explosion as a diversion to escape back into the woods where, he says, he feels like a Native American.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6946030.eceColton Harris-Moore, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs

[safeinOhio]

1. He could sell the movie rights and

most likely will.
Please drop cash at edge of woods

[FSogol]

2. A similar story is recounted in: "Ballad of a Whiskey Robber" by Julian Rubenstien.

I just finished it. Very funny.

[knowbody0]

3. I watched him grow up on my island

about a month ago I arrived home to find an entire swat team in my back yard with a beautiful German Shepard leading their way. the cops here are really angry about him and have accused him of shooting at an officer. He paused in front of our driveway in that Mercedes to yell out "who's poor now?" and then sped away to that crash you mention.

He was teased at school for being filthy and smelling bad and always told the kids his dad was a millionaire pilot. that he has taught himself to fly absolutely astounds me. he dropped out of school at 11.