'Barefoot Baby Bandit' Striking Again on Camano Island

Barefoot and baby faced, Colton Harrris-Moore has an extensive criminal record. The teen has spent the last 18 months as Washington state's most wanted man.

After, a recent rash of burglaries and thefts of both aircraft and boats, police on pastoral Camano Island and neighboring Whidbey Island believe "Colt" Harris-Moore is on another crime spree. Located at the northern entrance to Puget Sound, south of the San Juan Islands, Harris-Moore was born and raised here. He also seems able to avoid the police here effortlessly. Harris-Moore did not have an easy childhood, either. Living with only an unemployed mother, he was frequently thrown out of the house to fend for himself neighbor's told Kim Murphy of the LA Times. Snohomish County Court records make it plain Harris-Moore turned to a life of crime early and hard. Before he turned 13 he had been convicted of five offences on four separate occasions. The convictions including crimes such as theft, burglary, possession of stolen property and assault. Again this is the criminal career of a 12-year-old boy. On May 28, 2006 he used a stolen credit card to purchase $3,700. On Sept. 6, 2006 police recovered the property in a bush camp sequestered on his mother's property on south Camano Island. Five-months later, on February 9, 2007, Harris-Moore was arrested. He was sentenced to almost four years for burglary and possession of stolen property However, incarceration only meant an interlude to Harrris-Moore. In April 2008 he managed to disappear from a halfway house. The police have been chasing him ever since. He seems to have fed and clothed himself through petty crime. He is alleged to have been involved in more than 50 burglaries and untold numbers of thefts. He frequently steals boats to travel from one of the cluster of islands to another, commits a series of burglaries and then uses the boat as the getaway vehicle. Most spectacularly, a self-taught pilot, he has stolen three small planes, flown them across the state and landed safely but not elegantly; Harris-Moore's rough landings severely damaged the planes. In the process he has become a folk idol often compared to Jesse James. He has a fan club on Facebook, and folk songs have been written about him An unusual spike in thefts and burglaries on Camano and Whidbey Island in the last few weeks lead police to believe that Harris-Moore and the 18-month old search is focused on that area right now.