Another criminal cult hero

[A-R]

something tells me if this immature brat with loose head screws tried this in Texas, he'd have been shot by now.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561442,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Island-Hopping Teen Burglar Eludes Washington Police
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

 AP

Colton Harris-Moore
EASTSOUND, Wash. —  In the darkness of this sleepy island town, the beam of a deputy's flashlight caught the back of a lanky teenager wanted in a notorious 18-month burglary spree.

The teen glanced over his shoulder — and vanished into the woods. "He virtually vaporized in front of me," deputy Jeff Patterson recalled.

Such encounters have become all too common on the bucolic islands north of Seattle as police hunt for an elusive thief whose crime spree is quickly becoming a local legend. Colton Harris-Moore is suspected in about 50 burglary cases since he slipped away from a halfway house in April 2008.

Now, authorities say, he may have moved on to a more dangerous hobby: stealing airplanes.

The saga is beginning to feel like something out of the movie "Catch Me If You Can," as Harris-Moore keeps finding new ways to embarrass police by slipping through their grasp.

The 18-year-old typically breaks into businesses or unoccupied vacation homes, lies down on the couch and then dashes into the woods if confronted. He earned himself the nickname of "the barefoot burglar" by committing some of his crimes without wearing shoes.


But authorities say the case has taken on a dangerous new dimension now that Harris-Moore is apparently joyriding in small aircraft.

He is suspected of taking three planes from rural airports and crash-landing them. There were bare footprints inside and outside some hangars that had been broken into. In one, police said, footprints were on the wall — indicating that the suspect put his feet up, apparently while eating.

His mother said she doesn't see anything wrong with what he's suspected of doing.

"I hope to hell he stole those airplanes — I would be so proud," Pam Kohler told a reporter, noting her son's lack of training. "But put in there that I want him to wear a parachute next time."

Over the weekend, someone took blankets, shoes and food from a home near the site where a stolen Cessna crash-landed north of Seattle on an apparent path toward Harris-Moore's hometown on Camano Island. SWAT teams were called out after a shot was fired from the woods, but whoever was responsible got away.

The teen may be motivated by a strong interest in aviation, but police say he does not discriminate in his choice of stolen vehicle: A boat stolen from the island was found last month on the mainland.

Police believe Harris-Moore also recently took thousands of dollars from safes and ATMs at businesses in the Orcas Island hamlet of Eastsound.

The teen has exploited the fact that the police do not have the manpower to mount an all-out hunt in a property crime case. Sheriff's offices on some of the islands do not even have tracking dogs.

Frustrated residents wonder how hard it is to find a 6-foot-5, 200-pound teenager in the confines of an island, while red-faced cops bristle at what they see as attempts to romanticize the fugitive. A Harris-Moore fan club has emerged on Facebook, and a Seattle man started selling T-shirts bearing his picture and the words "Momma Tried."

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown, whose office has dealt with Harris-Moore at least since he was 11, said he recently blew up at a "Today" show producer who wanted to ask him about the made-for-Hollywood aspect of the story.

"He is an adult felon!" Brown said. "I will not have him made into some kind of folk hero."

Harris-Moore grew up in the woods of Camano, a piece of land shaped like a backwards question mark in Puget Sound, 30 miles north of Seattle. A long gravel drive lined with thick vegetation and "no trespassing" signs leads to the property. His home is a tarp-covered, single-wide trailer surrounded by tall cedar trees and decommissioned pickup trucks.

The teenager's mother recently greeted a reporter and photographer by promising to chase them off the property with a shotgun. Then she granted a lengthy interview.

She said her son's father left when he was about 2, his stepfather died when he was about 7, and from the time Harris-Moore was in first grade, she knew there was something off about him — "sort of a disconnection."

He wouldn't listen to his teachers, started altercations at school and sometimes deliberately broke things around the house, Kohler said. And sheriff's deputies sometimes accused him of stealing things even when he hadn't, she added — such as a $300 bicycle she said she bought him for his birthday one year.

"Every time he had anything any good, everyone thought he stole it," she said. "What does that do to a kid?"

Harris-Moore had his first conviction, for possession of stolen property, by age 12. Within a few months of turning 13, he had three more. Each brought a 10-day stint in detention or community service.

An Island County sheriff's deputy on Camano once caught him by posing as a pizza delivery guy after noticing a multitude of empty pizza boxes at a campsite he used. Another time, deputies saw him jump out of a stolen Mercedes. They later found his self-portrait on a stolen digital camera, posing in a black, collared shirt with a Mercedes logo.

In 2007, he was sentenced to nearly four years in juvenile detention after being caught in an unoccupied home when a neighbor noticed the lights on. But he did well enough at the detention center that he was transferred to a halfway house, where he sneaked out an open window.

He's been playing cat-and-mouse with authorities ever since. His mother said she has reason to believe he linked up with a small group of other people who have safe-houses protected by high-tech surveillance systems, but she said she doesn't know anything else about them.

"We haven't caught him, but neither has anybody else," said San Juan County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Vierthaler. "You always get caught eventually."

Kohler hopes her son makes his way to a country that won't extradite him. She said she sometimes talks to him on the phone, but she won't let on if she knows where he is.

"I figure I'll spend my time with him in a positive way," she said, "because who knows if he'll be shot tomorrow?"

[surprise_i'm_armed]

The shirt says "Momma Tried" but I don't think she did.

She is currently condoning his criminal behavior and egging him on to continue.

SIA

[Purplehood]

She is enjoying her 15-minutes of fame.

[edmart001]

I think that story is a sad commentary on our society at many levels. The young man, the mother, the juvenile justice system and law enforcement, the media and some (it would seem many) in the general public.

It's rare, but I'm speechless.

[DONT TREAD ON ME]

Thats whats wrong with kids these days...The parents! No matter what their kid does its ok and they back them up and in this case instigates them.

What happened to teaching our children right from wrong? And when they did wrong punishing them or telling them to deal with the consequences?

Not anymore instead we tell them its ok or make a big fuss cause the teacher/principal suspended them or cause the police arrested them.

RIDICULOUS

[Purplehood]

And we wonder why history is cyclic.

[lonewolf]

Sounds like Momma needs some quiet cell time for aiding and abetting, or obstruction of justice, or something.

The kid needs to go away forever, or come here to Texas. That he could stay free this long is a travesty. That his mother defends him is absurd. This is the acceptable behavior he learned from others. He can learn some more from the prison library, as far as I am concerned. If he can read, that is.

The excuses Momma makes are not for the crazy behavior of her son, but for her complete, total and utter failing as a mother to raise him with some moral integrity, respect for others, etc, etc.

[lonewolf]

Sounds like Momma needs some quiet cell time for aiding and abetting, or obstruction of justice, or something.

The kid needs to go away forever, or come here to Texas. That he could stay free this long is a travesty. That his mother defends him is absurd. This is the acceptable behavior he learned from others. He can learn some more from the prison library, as far as I am concerned. If he can read, that is.

The excuses Momma makes are not for the crazy behavior of her son, but for her complete, total and utter failing as a mother to raise him with some moral integrity, respect for others, etc, etc.

[WildBill]

something tells me if this immature brat with loose head screws tried this in Texas, he'd have been shot by now.

You never know. It might not be too long before he gets caught. Washington is a shall-issue state and there plenty of people carrying up there. It's even cold enough to wear a jacket most of the year.

[DoubleJ]

I can assure you, if he tries this in a particular house near Seattle, he won't be giggling and taking pictures any more!
ya'll know how easy it is to get yer CHL there?

[Pete92FS]

He is suspected of taking three planes from rural airports and crash-landing them.

You never know. It might not be too long before he gets caught. Washington is a shall-issue state and there plenty of people carrying up there. It's even cold enough to wear a jacket most of the year.

Or maybe he'll crash land one of the planes he's joy riding in a little too hard and that will be the end of those capers. Maybe he didn't practice his landings enough on "Microsoft Flight Simulator".

The mother needs to be locked up "just because".