Transcript of Colton Harris-Moore: The Barefoot Bandit (AKA AyleSteelya Earhart)

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.

And I'm Elena.

And this is Morbid. This is Morbid, everybody.

It's your daily dose of Morbid.

Almost.

Kinda.

Or daily dose of us.

Yeah.

You know.

I mean, we have a lot of pod dues around here.

We're out here.

We're out here.

I mean, they can have a daily dose of you.

Yeah, that's true. You can.

You've got 90 books of the Zeitgeist.

Yeah, dude. Have a daily dose. Get them all. Catch them all.

Catch them all.

Like Pokémon.

Period.

That's another Ash.

There you go.

Um, what you got for us? Anything?

Not really. We have something exciting happening this week that you guys will experience next week.

That's pretty exciting.

It's pretty cool.

It's sick.

It's like really cool, actually.

I'm stoked about it.

I would say.

Yeah, probably like next Monday it'll be for you.

Yeah, so get ready for that.

Yeah. Hold onto your butts.

Hold onto everything.

Remember when we used to say chesticles?

Chesticles.

I saw somebody say chesticles on TikTok the other day, and I was like, "We used to say that."

Aw.

It's funny.

Look at that. Nostalgia.

Nostalgia.

Nostalgia.

Speaking of body parts.

Speaking of body parts.

That's a good segue for us.

Yeah. We're going to be talking about Colton Harris-Moore today, The Barefoot Bandit. Not to be confused with the bob-haired bandit.

Or the barefoot contessa.

All different.

Very.

All different.

Very different people.

Yes.

Although he's a little similar to the barefoot bandit, or, uh, the bob-haired bandit.

Oh, yeah?

But nobody dies.

I love that.

Yeah. You told us a serial killer story, so I said, "Let's give him a light one."

Yeah, that's probably good. You know.

You want to get into it?

Let's get into it.

All right, Curtis.

What's.

Yeah, Curtis.

Hit stop.

Mark it down.

Put it in the Spotify comments.

You'll be happy to.

Make sure to be a hero for everyone.

You're such a hero.

Here's your pat.

All right.

Pat Pat.

Good job.

So who is Colton Harris-Moore, honey?

Who is he?

He was born on March 22nd.

He was born.

Yeah.

To be somebody first, you have to be born.

You do.

And he was, he did that on March 22nd, 1991, on Kamano Island, just about 60 miles outside of Seattle. It's a little sad before it gets silly, but I promise it does get silly.

Okay, we love that.

I mean, in the, in the way of burglary, but.

But like no one's dying.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah.

So he was the only child born to Pam Kohler and Gordon Moore. By all accounts, Gordon, the father, really struggled with substance abuse issues, and he was very in and out of Colton's life, basically for like the majority of it.

That's a bummer.

But he kind of, like by the time Colton was a toddler, he disappeared from the picture entirely. And I think he re-entered years later, but it was a very strained relationship.

Ugh.

Yeah. And unfortunately, Pam was left to raise her son on her own, and she had her own struggles.

Oh, ignore.

Now, the first signs of trouble, as far as Colton was concerned, started when he was enrolled in preschool, so very early on.

Aw.

Adults around him would notice that he would hit his head against the wall whenever he was stressed or anxious or something like that.

Oh no.

And his teacher also noticed he was having trouble keeping up with the other kids. So they suggested an educational evaluation, and that identified him as developmentally delayed. Now, as a result of the educational testing, he was put on an IEP, Individualized Education Plan, and placed in a special program that was designed to help him adapt.

Yeah.

And I think.

Thank goodness for those.

That was such a good thing, but I don't think he had the home life that would support. Like, I think you need the balance of both.

You need both, yeah.

To be able to adapt.

You need an entire village.

And he didn't have the home life. Um, there's not a lot of documentation about his early life, but we do know a little bit about how toxic his home life was, and it's really sad.

Mm-hmm.

According to his own reports, his mom was a heavy drinker, and she was verbally and at times physically abusive towards him.

Ugh.

There was also just a lot of people coming and going from the house all the time.

How.

Why do people do this to children?

It's awful.

Like, I don't understand, and I won't get further into it because I'll just get yelled at, but.

Same.

I don't understand this kind of behavior.

Yeah, I don't either.

And the thing was, some of the people, like some of the men coming and going, were romantically involved with Pam, but other times there was just people there that were like sobering up or looking for a place to stay while they weren't sober, and they had their own issues.

Yeah.

It was.

Oh, and there's this little.

And it's just a little baby in the house.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

That makes me sad.

Neighbors witnessed enough to make them uncomfortable and worried for Colton's safety, enough so that there were multiple reports made to Child Protective Services. And obviously, those reports are not publ uh, not available to the public, but a 2007 psychiatric evaluation noted that there was at least 12 referrals made to Child Protective Services by 20, uh, 2005.

What the fuck were they doing?

And I don't understand why he wasn't taken away or.

Yeah, like, what.

Removed.

Was any, like, what was happening here?

I don't know.

12 referrals?

Yeah.

It's wild.

Jesus.

I think he.

That's shameful.

I think the system failed to.

Yeah, I would say so. That's shameful.

Yeah.

I will keep my opinions to myself. Now, as a result of his home life, Colton obviously wasn't able to develop a sense of basic trust or psychological health in any way whatsoever.

Yeah.

Like, he was set up to fail.

For sure.

Now, eventually, and not shockingly, his negative home life started having more of an effect on his behavior at school and also around town.

Of course.

Between 2002 and 2005, there were a lot of incident reports involving him, mostly related to bullying, harassment, vandalism, theft.

Aw.

Kind of like you name it. The majority of incidents were punished with in-school suspension, but there was one period where he got expelled for a more serious act of, uh, both vandalism and theft.

Oh, that's so bad.

Yeah. So to escape the negative home environment and all the trouble that he was getting into at school, he started to spend most of his free time outside by himself in the woods.

Oh.

And he's just, he's like a young kid at this point.

That's so sad. Like, the woods, like when you're younger too, like the woods, like, you know, when you're with friends, you can have fun.

Yeah.

But to go in the woods alone as a kid, it has to be really bad to find solace in a place that usually scares kids.

Yeah, absolutely.

To be alone, you know?

Like a vast, scary.

Yeah.

Area.

Like, I know obviously some kids just really like the woods, and they have a perfectly fine home life, but.

Yeah.

Put it together and it's like, oh.

When it's like, it's one thing to like hanging out in the woods, like.

But to find, like.

But he was living in the woods.

Safety in the woods, you know?

Now, around the same time that he started spending, you know, more of his time out there, neighbors on the island started noticing things going missing from their homes, unfortunately.

Oh, no.

According to one neighbor, UPS packages would, uh, be delivered to homes on the street and would disappear. And others noticed larger things like lawnmowers and gardening equipment going missing.

Damn.

To which I'm like, Colton, what were you doing with lawnmowers?

Yeah. And you're going from porch pirating to.

Lawnmowers.

Sailing away with people's ships? Like, what's going on?

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Sailing away with people's ships, honey, that's foreshadowing right there.

Oh, is it?

Yeah.

Oh.

Do you know this case or no?

No, I don't know this case.

You just.

Weirdly enough, I don't.

You did some serious foreshadowing.

Oh, did I? Oh, I did that on purpose.

I didn't know this case either, but it's, I mean, it's weird that we don't, because apparently he became like a national icon at one point.

Wow.

Yeah.

I must have slept through that.

I did too.

Yeah, who knows?

It just didn't make its way over to us on the.

No.

On the East Coast. Uh, one neighbor said though that he would use his dog as an excuse to go onto other people's property, so I think that's like what made it easier.

Oh, okay.

Now, by the time he was 12, Colton had racked up seven criminal charges for theft.

Seven at 12?

Yeah.

Damn.

And he also had already served a short juvenile facility, a sentence in a juvenile facility for stealing.

Eeh.

In 2004, when he was 13, he was arrested when he was caught stealing items from his own middle school, and this is really sad.

He's like screaming out for help and attention.

Oh, this next sentence that he, like, what he says to somebody? Exactly. He was asked why he was doing it, and he told the principal he couldn't stop and he didn't know why.

Oh, that like breaks my heart.

Yeah. So he has like a.

Like obviously.

Compulsion.

It's not good to steal, but a kid saying, "I don't even know why I'm doing this."

Yeah, and I can't stop.

Yeah.

Because that also insinuates like, "I'd like to, I don't want to be doing this."

Yeah, "I don't want to be doing this, but I can't stop."

Right.

Oh, that's really sad.

When it's like.

And he probably doesn't have like the, the emotional vocabulary to really like pinpoint where it's coming from or anything.

Mm-hmm.

Or even try to say where it's coming from, so he's just like, "I don't know."

I mean, I think it's pretty easy to tell where it's coming from. He's neglected.

Well, yeah.

From an outside point of view.

But it's definitely easy.

And from like an adult point of view.

Yeah.

So like where were all the adults to help him? Like, I don't.

And he's screaming out for attention, obviously.

Yeah, and like obviously there's a lot going on at home, and it's well documented.

I mean, there's 12 referrals.

Right.

To CPS. It's like, what?

How did this go on for so long?

Yeah.

But the arrest at that point earned him a 30-day stay at the Denny Youth Center in Everett. And upon his release, he really, that was when he like kind of like permanently moved into the woods.

Damn.

Because he just didn't want to go back home with his mom.

That's cra and he was like 12 or 13?

Yeah.

12, Jesus.

He was young at that point. Uh, after his release, local police on the island were planning to keep tabs on him because by then he had earned himself a reputation.

Yeah.

But unfortunately, they learned that Colton was not going to be easy to keep track of or to keep out of trouble.

Oh, man.

So they did try.

Yeah.

But he was tough to keep tabs on.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, he's living off the grid, essentially.

I was going to say.

Now, in the late spring of 2006, the residents on the island once again started noticing things going missing from their homes.

Oh, Colton's back.

Yeah, ex well, they immediately knew who was responsible. But this time it wasn't just UPS deliveries or lawnmowers.

Small potatoes.

Small potatoes indeed, because police now thought he was stealing credit cards, or at least copying down the information, which he was using then to order things online.

Oh, no, Colton. This is bad.

And that wasn't the biggest problem. Now, he was 15 years old and 6'2".

Whoa.

And rumored to be carrying an automatic pistol and a can of, a can of bear spray.

Oh, no.

Yeah, so this has escalated.

Yeah.

A lot.

That's scary.

It's very scary.

Because he's obviously dealing with a lot. He's a little lad.

When if you're willing to go into somebody's home to copy down their credit card information.

Yeah.

Anytime you're willing to go into somebody's home like that.

Yeah.

Things have gotten scary.

Definitely.

Now, with the exception of some bullying in school and the damage caused to property from vandalism or from breaking and entering, he had never been particularly violent in the past, so the news that he was carrying a loaded gun was a game changer at that point.

Yeah, because like, where did that come from?

Yeah. And they also knew that he had a significant amount of survival gear, including a police scanner and a radio, which had been paid for with stolen credit cards.

Well, and I guess when you really think about it, he this is in Washington, right?

Mm-hmm.

And he's living in the wilderness.

Yeah.

He probably should have a gun.

Yeah.

You know, like, like that, to me, I'm hoping.

Maybe he didn't just survive.

He didn't have a tool to shoot people. I'm hoping like, you know what I mean? Like, he's living in the wilderness in Washington. There's lots of.

I mean, it very well could have been grizzlies.

Are there grizzlies in Washington?

Yeah.

Grizzlies are fucking terrifying.

When he has bear spray too.

Yeah.

Um, the thing, I don't think he ever shot at anybody like human, so.

Yeah, so maybe it was just.

He might be onto something there.

Uh, I think, yeah, he there are grizzlies.

I thought.

Those things will fuck you up.

I fucking I can't.

For fun.

That's the other thing. It's like the question that we ask women, the man or the bear in the woods.

Yeah.

And it's like, for him, your mom or the bear.

Or the bear, and he chose bears.

Like, that's really sad.

That's really sad.

Now, knowing that capturing him peacefully and without incident wasn't going to be maybe as easy as it had been in the past, police turned to his mom, Pam, for help, hoping that she might.

Yeah.

Know the best way to bring him in. If they'd asked any of the school administrators, teachers, counselors, or people at CPS who had worked with Colton, they would have known that Pam wasn't necessarily their best ally in getting help for her son.

Which is crazy that they didn't talk to anybody who he was around all the time.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, the there were 12 referrals to CPS.

Yeah.

Like, that, that tells you at least something, that something is awry.

I don't get it personally.

Yeah.

But they were like, "Hey, Pam, what do we do?"

Yeah, you know.

And, uh, she said, "No 15-year-old kid, I don't care how big and strong you are, can do all those break-ins. That's ridiculous." So she just didn't believe the news version.

I mean, she, she would know.

And then when, uh, asked if she knew where her child was, she denied having any information. And she told a reporter, "I'm glad somebody's harboring him. At least he's warm and has a full belly."

Because I'm not going to do it.

It's like.

So.

You're his mom.

Yeah, like, what the fuck?

Now, for weeks, police hunted Colton from one end of the island to the other, but they always seemed to just be one step behind him. And the problem was, he had spent years exploring in the woods and on the island by himself, so he knew the area better than even they did.

Yeah.

You know? And while they tracked him, he kept right on stealing from the residents on the island and occasionally would stay in empty vacation homes when the weather was too bad.

Wow.

It seemed impossible though that one teenage boy could go undetected for that long.

Yeah.

And that's probably because it was. Even though Pam denied knowing anything about his whereabouts or which locations he might be found in in the woods, she was not being entirely honest.

Ah.

While he did spend a lot of his time on the run from, uh, police that summer and, and into the fall, he did return home regularly to eat and to shower.

Oh.

And then he would head back out to whatever campsite he made for himself.

Oh.

So I think he was able to spend short periods of time at home.

Okay.

But then had to get out. I think he knew.

To use the facilities and then.

I think he knew the appropriate times to, to go home. I think a lot of people with.

Yeah.

Who have parents that struggle.

Disrupt homes.

Can understand that. Like, he was like, "You know, maybe around this time I'll go home and I'll be good."

Yeah, and then he'll go.

And then I'll head out before it gets bad again.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Now, it was at one of those abandoned campsites though that local police found something that gave them the idea that he was doing this. Apparently, they had just missed him. He had already fled. But they found a dozen pizza boxes collected in a pile.

Huh.

And they reasoned that if he had ordered pizza, it likely had to be delivered to an address.

Yeah. You can't just say the woods.

Yeah, no, you can't. 155 The Woods.

In Washington.

Uh, and there was likely only one person on the island who wouldn't have turned him in. So investigators waited until the next time Colton ordered a pizza to be delivered to his mother's trailer at, uh, Haven Place. And when that call came in one night in late June 2006, they sprang into action. Knowing he was definitely going to flee as soon as he saw anyone who wasn't the pizza delivery driver, they parked a ways down the road and they started brainstorming ideas on how to catch him before he made a break for it. And when they spotted the delivery driver coming down the road, one of the deputies flagged him down and explained the situation.

Oh, he was probably like, "I'm just trying to deliver pizza, man."

Yeah.

Like, that's just your job and you're like, "God, now I have to be part of a sting operation."

He's like, "This is literally my after-school job, please leave me."

Like, shit, I almost called out tonight.

Right.

I should have.

Honestly. Well, so they asked if they could borrow his shirt and his hat. And after putting on the delivery driver disguise, the deputy grabbed the roof sign from the driver's car and put it on his own car.

Wow.

Which obviously was undercover, and then pulled into the trailer or not into the trailer, but into the, um, into Haven Place. Pam Kohler's house. A few minutes later, he returned to his partner with Colton handcuffed in the back seat of the car.

Damn.

They got him.

That was too easy.

Yeah. So after s honestly, it wasn't though, because at that point, he had been on the run for several weeks.

Yeah. I just mean like when it finally came down to it, it was like, just dress up as a pizza delivery person.

Yeah, it's true.

And just go to his mom's house.

It's always the simplest answer.

Yeah.

So he was finally off the street and sentenced again to 30 days at Denny Youth Center, uh, for theft of items valued at $3,700.

Damn.

And also failure to appear in court for a previous hearing. He was released in July of 2006, and just one week after his release, the DA filed an arrest warrant for him related to theft and use of credit cards in excess of $5,000.

Oh, no.

Now, that was a felony that would have.

I was going to say felony.

Yeah, that's felonious. So he would have been in a juvenile facility for years if convicted.

Eek.

Now knowing that he was facing significant jail time, he fled.

Yeah.

And hid out in the woods, as you can imagine, in empty vacation homes, and basically just went right back to life as it was before.

Yeah.

But obviously, there are only so many places you can hide on an island, especially when everybody on the island knows you by sight alone.

Yeah.

Now, this time he managed to evade police for seven months, using his usual routine of moving from one campsite to another, stealing from houses on the island, yada yada. In that time, there were several close calls, typically when they would visit Pam's house and Colton was forced to run out the back door, or he would hide in the brush of a tree line and just like watch them.

Yeah. And she's, is she like cooperating?

Um.

Because otherwise she's harboring a fugitive.

Well, the thing is she wasn't harboring him because he wasn't staying there.

But is that what you have to do? Like, she's feeding and.

I don't know.

And allowing him to be at her house without calling the police.

Yeah, that's true.

Isn't that harboring?

I would think so.

Because.

I don't think they went after her for that.

No.

For whatever reason.

What is harboring?

There's no specific legal time limit, such as 24 or 48 hours, that allows you to safely or legally shelter a runaway minor or a fugitive without notifying authorities.

But could they prove it if he wasn't there when they got there? You know what I mean? Maybe that was the trouble.

Well, if he's just like running out the back door.

But then they're like not fi I think he later admitted that.

Yeah.

I don't think they knew that.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, who knows?

I don't know.

I'm just wondering why she's like just bopping around harboring a fugitive. I know it's her son.

Just bopping around harboring a fugitive.

Oh, like, it's just strange.

Yeah. I mean, they also could have got her on a number of other.

Yeah, they absolutely could have.

Charges that didn't seem like they did.

So maybe they're just working.

Yeah.

You know?

And I think their main focus was Colton.

Yeah. So on these occasions, the officers would typically go through his stuff, confiscate any stolen items that they could find, and they would match each piece of, uh, of like any stolen good with a police report of the stolen good.

Yeah.

On one occasion, they found something at one of the campsites that at the time didn't mean much, but ultimately it would become quite illuminating. It was a flight training magazine that had been delivered to Pam Kohler's address. And I just like you.

Flight training.

Yeah, I just want you to put that in your back pocket for now.

Huh.

Comes back later.

Okay.

So Colton's months-long, uh, run from police finally came to an end in February of 2007, when one of the residents on the island called the sheriff's office to report the lights on in a home of a neighbor who was not supposed to be on the island for like several more months. So empty vacation home. That night, a dozen officers from different law enforcement agencies surrounded the house, and they urged him to surrender. So when he made no move to come out, they decided to try a different tactic, and somebody went to go pick up Pam and bring him or bring her to the scene.

Wow.

Which is very surprising.

That he still like has that.

They have some kind of.

Connection.

Yeah, relationship or connection.

Nobody can know everything about what happened between them.

Exactly.

You know?

So.

Mm-hmm.

Now, this time, law enforcement officials were not taking any chances. He was locked up in the Island County Juvenile Detention Center, and they set the bail at $20,000, which nobody in his life was going to be able to pay.

Yeah.

And in addition to the original charges that initially caused him to go on the road or on the run, excuse me, he had racked up 10 new burglary and theft charges and was now facing even more.

Yeah.

Serious consequences.

Years and years.

Like a long time. Now, despite the serious nature of the crimes and the months of anxiety that Colton had inflicted on the island, the island residents.

I know, because no matter what, no matter how this ends and no matter what the situation was, that's really scary that he was just like skulking around this island stealing from people.

That's terrifying.

Like, that's fucked up.

Well, that's the and you have sympathy for like what he went through.

Yeah.

And the fact that like he's living in the woods and whatnot, but you also at the same time have to have sympathy for the people on the island who were being.

Absolutely.

Terrorized.

They were all victims of this.

Yeah.

Like, that's really scary.

A six-foot-two teenager armed with bear spray and a pistol breaking into your house.

Yeah.

And using your fucking credit card, I'd be pissed.

Yeah, which is like can be absolutely catastrophic for a lot of people.

Mm-hmm.

Like, it can be debilitating to have somebody steal your credit card and like it takes forever to get it fixed.

Yeah.

Or even just to break into your house, like to violate your sense of safety.

Yeah.

Like that.

Exactly.

So it is important to acknowledge both sides.

Yeah, for sure. Like, you know, it's just I feel bad for everybody here.

I do too.

And with all that being said, there were still a lot of people who had sympathy for Colton though. Like, the it seems like a really nice community.

Yeah.

Uh, Sergeant Brian Legacy said, "He can be personable. He could win you over, convince you he needs support and resources, and then break into your home too."

Like, that's scary.

Even neighbors though, several of whom had been victims of his crimes themselves, recognized that yes, he had committed serious crimes, but he hadn't gotten to that place on his own, they said.

I think that's the thing.

Yeah.

That's like lingering throughout this is like this isn't somebody who just made a decision later in life.

Right. This isn't like some rich kid.

Having like all the opportunities in the world.

Yeah. One neighbor said, "The kid needs help. He's screaming for it. Hopefully, he pulls himself out of that lifestyle before somebody gets hurt." Which is.

These are like.

Perfect.

Really great people to be considering that.

Washington.

You know?

You go.

You go Washington.

You go Washington. Now, according to most people familiar with the case, the biggest negative influence on Colton's life was his parents, especially his mom, and then of course the numerous men drifting in and out of their home.

Which is so sad.

And then eventually.

Mostly negative influences your parents.

Yeah.

God damn.

Because eventually his dad came back into the picture and.

Oh, boy.

Was very abusive. It's really sad.

Oh my God.

Yeah. But by the time he reached high school, Colton had become a savvy enough criminal that he was no longer acting alone. His post-arrest interviews and psychiatric evaluation revealed a lot about how far gone he was and really at that point how uninterested he was in turning things around.

Oh, no.

In his mind, his thefts and burglaries were part of what he perceived as a war on the local police. Motivated.

You're not warring the local police though. You're hurting your community.

Exactly.

And the people who like do support you.

He did not see it like that.

Yeah.

At the time, I would say.

Yeah.

Uh, and he felt that he was he was motivated basically for what he considered their targeting him from an early age.

Okay.

He did not have I don't think he had a concept of right and wrong at this point in time.

No. I don't think he was really taught that.

No.

You know?

Now, to that end, he recruited another local teenager, and I need you all to just take a seat. If you're if you're standing up, I'd like you to sit down. Local teenager, 17-year-old Harley Davidson Ironwing.

Harley Davidson?

Yes.

Okay.

Harley Davidson.

We like a bike.

Ironwing.

You know?

Yeah.

We like a bike.

So that's who was recruited by Colton.

Okay.

And the sheriff's office believed that that that was who was helping Colton in his latest crime spree.

Harley, don't do it.

Harley did it.

You've got you've got an important responsibility of a brand on your shoulders.

It's true. Uh, Harley himself had a really tough life.

Oh.

I read like a separate article about him. It was pretty similar to.

Oh, man.

Colton's life, but an older woman took him in.

Oh, man.

And she is actually the one that named she renamed him Harley Davidson.

Oh my God.

He was born Harley, but I she changed his middle name.

Okay.

And, uh, she he took her last name. And she was good to him, but then I think there were like other kids in the house that weren't so good to him. But yeah, it sounds like he he had a tough time too.

Aw.

It's sad.

That's sad.

I know. This reporter, I think it was, um, I think it was like CBS News or, you know, one of those.

Yeah.

Like met up with Harley, and he wouldn't let him buy him a meal. He was like, "No, no, no, like you don't have to."

Mm-hmm.

And like his bus got delayed, and he sent him an email and was like like basically like being accountable for time.

Aw.

He it was just like very he had a very like I can't think of the word. Um, I'm literally brain dead. Hold on.

Yeah.

I'm literally brain dead.

When you're like two things at once, like, um.

Like dichotomous.

Dichotomous, yeah.

It was a very dichotomous personality.

Yeah.

But looking back, um, Harley Davidson Ironwig wasn't surprised that he got caught up in Colton's life. In 2009, he told a reporter, "Back then I was a troublemaker. He had come to me. Everyone knows I'm a criminal."

Oh, that's that's even sadder.

It is.

It's just like I mean, he was 17 by this point, so it's like you got to start you got to start righting the ship, babe.

Well, and Colton's getting older too. He's in high school now.

Yeah. Like, let's go.

Now, it all started in 2006 when Colton enlisted Harley to help him burglarize empty vacation homes on the island, hitting several homes a night.

Damn.

Over time, they taught each other various tricks of the trade, like how to turn out cabinets and rifle through drawers with like incredible speed. So they're basically teaching each other how to become career criminals.

Awesome.

Yeah. Now, despite, uh, Harley's participation in the robberies on the island, the focus of the district attorney's attention still remained Colton. By the time he was finally captured, he had burned through a lot of the sympathy and goodwill that members of law enforcement had for him.

That's the thing.

Up to that point.

The older you get and the more you're doing this, the less people are going to be like, "You know, he had a tough childhood." It's like.

You got to grow out of this.

Turn it around, babe. This isn't your these aren't your things.

Right.

These aren't your things. You're scaring people. You're violating people's homes and security.

Mm-hmm.

That's fucked up.

It is.

I know you're not like physically hurting people, but emotionally you are.

But you are emotionally and financially hurting people.

Yeah.

But what he did still have going for himself, at least at this point, was that he was still a juvenile. And again, most importantly, like you said, he still hadn't hurt anybody during the commission of his crimes.

Exactly.

It was also worth noting that he had no history of drug or alcohol abuse, which was another point in his favor as far as law was the law enforcement members were concerned.

Mm-hmm.

And according to the psychologist who completed one of the evaluations he underwent, she uh, they wrote, "While Colton surely has developed some destructive habits over the past two years, he is not deeply a deeply antisocial youth, and more than anything, he wishes for the opportunity to take up a healthy trajectory of school and work." So there was like this glimmer of hope underlying in there.

Well, that's like more than anything he wishes like to turn this around is like interesting.

It is.

Yeah.

Because it's almost like he's fighting himself.

Yeah.

You know?

Absolutely.

So the fact that he was a nonviolent offender and was not likely to be a danger to anybody was significant. That the prosecutor was willing to be somewhat lenient, and when he was ultimately arrested for like the 450th time, he was sentenced to three years in a juvenile facility.

Wow.

But he was never one to stay put very long, no matter where he was or who sent him there.

Oh, no, Colton.

So he was to serve this particular sentence at the Green Hill School, which is a part of Washington State's correctional system, uh, designed to serve offenders under the age of 18. However, after about six months in the locked facility, he was transferred to Griffin Home, which is a halfway house in Renton, about 70 miles from the island. Things actually seemed to be going in the right direction at this point, but then nobody really knows why. On April I think he just went back to his old ways. On April 30th, 2008, he slipped away from the halfway house in the middle of the night and just went back on the run.

The call of the woods.

It's almost like, you know, when people have spent a really long time in prison.

Yeah, they like sleep in the bathroom.

Yes.

Because they don't like.

They can't all that space.

Yeah, they can't like acclimate to like the bigger world.

It's like he had acclimated to the wild.

To the woods.

Yeah.

Essentially.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, the escape hardly came as a surprise to the staff though. One counselor said, "He's a very angry young man who has yet to accept responsibility for previous actions. He still brags about outrunning the police for several months."

And that's not good.

No.

That's not showing that you're growing, babe.

And again, it's like he has this dichotomous personality.

Yeah, because he's.

Where like he wants to.

He wishing.

Wishing for a better life.

Yeah.

If he wants a job, he wants to go back to school, but then he like can't fight it.

And is sitting and is still angry and still bragging about inflicting this kind of like he's saying it's on the local police, but it's like, no, you know you're inflicting this on your community as well.

I don't.

Like you're not that.

I don't think.

Removed.

I I don't think it was like lost on him, but I think for him the primary focus was law enforcement.

Yeah, because that was his aim.

Mm-hmm.

But it's like you need to think about the collateral damage happening here.

Yeah. When you also have to think about authority figures in his life.

Yeah.

I don't think he ever learned to trust authority.

He doesn't have respect.

Respect or anything like that.

Yeah.

So when the news of Colton's escape broke the next day, a wave of anxiety shot through the island, um, who were informed that Colton was likely armed with a pistol still. Uh, in a statement to the press, Island County Sheriff Mark Brown stressed the very serious nature of Colton's escape and made it clear that his number one priority was to protect residents. He told a reporter, "I'm concerned because of the magnitude of what he did. I don't want that to happen again. I'm doing everything I can to get back uh, to get him back into custody." Like the residents of the island, he believed that having left the halfway house, Colton almost would have certainly run to the only place he'd ever known.

Yeah.

The island, so everybody was on high alert. Now, two days after he fled Griffin Home, someone reported that Colton was fishing at Lake, uh, Quay in Arlington, which is 50 miles north of that halfway house.

Damn.

And if that were accurate, it suggested that he was actually moving further away from the island.

Yeah.

Not closer to it. But Sheriff Brown's instincts proved to be spot on. Just a few days after the first sighting in Arlington, the sheriff's office on the island received a report that somebody had broken into the fire station in the middle of the night and stolen infrared headset, the like the ones that are used to locate victims in like low visibility.

Which those are important for firefighters to have.

Well, and what the fuck do you need that for?

Yeah.

Like, hello?

Is that like nighttime?

Maybe.

Fiction even? Would it help with that maybe?

I guess, but there was no question who took it.

Damn.

A few weeks later, Island County Deputy Bill uh, Bill Vaughn spotted a Mercedes sedan driving erratically, and as he pulled up closer, intending to hit the lights and pull the driver over, the driver spotted him, hit the gas, and before Vaughn knew it, he was in a high-speed chase across the island.

Shit.

Vaughn and his partner chased the Mercedes through the small winding streets of the island community until it started finally, the car started to slow down as they reached, um, Elder Bay Grocery. And it was there to the deputy's surprise that the driver opened the door and jumped from the moving vehicle.

What?

It all happened.

Tuck and rolled?

Literally. It all happened in a flash, but the driver got up from the ground, and when he did, Vaughn saw it was none other than Colton Harris-Moore.

Shit.

The car, as it turned out, belonged to a neighbor of Pam's, who was away in another state at the time that the car was stolen. And when Colton ditched the vehicle, it continued rolling because, like you just said, he literally tuck and rolled.

Yeah.

Until it slammed into the side of a cafe next to the grocery store. Now, luckily, Vaughn had the presence of mind to rush over to the building and turn off the gas tanks.

Holy shit.

Or that could have ended in like a straight-up explosion.

See, and this is where it's like now you are endangering everybody around you.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

For your own personal safety, and that's fucked up.

What are you doing, dude?

Yeah.

So Bill's sighting of Colton confirmed what everybody already suspected, that he had definitely returned to the island and was back up to his old old ways, but even worse now.

Ratcheting it up a notch.

Yeah. To members of law enforcement, it gave them a new lead and something to work with. But there was also something about his return that felt like an offense. Sheriff Brown said he spit in the eyes of law enforcement. He spit in the eyes of juvenile services that tried to help him, and now he spit in the eyes of citizens that have tried to help him. Like people were.

Yeah.

The goodwill's gone.

Yeah. I mean, he really could have caused catastrophic damage there.

Yeah. And actually, I should just like the the police were really pissed off at this point, obviously.

Yeah.

But still, the locals had like a little bit of sympathy left for him.

Damn.

Resident Patrick Campbell said, "He's a kid who's basically being a dumb kid, but if he keeps doing what he's doing, he could be a dead kid."

I mean, yeah.

And the fact that people are.

But I don't know if I would.

Still concerned.

Yeah, I don't know if I would categorize this as being a dumb kid.

No, it's definitely a lot.

Yeah, yeah. I feel like it's getting a little worse.

Yeah.

That's very kind of them to give such grace.

It is. Now, with no way to locate him and little chance of capturing him at this point, the sheriff's department turned to the only person who seemed capable of getting through to him, his mom, Pam.

Wow.

Now, she was mostly cooperative, so you asked that earlier. I think.

Yeah?

I think that maybe is how she got away with.

Yeah.

Not aiding and abetting a criminal.

Yeah.

Um, and she acknowledged that she did occasionally get calls from her son, but she didn't think there was anything she could do to help the police bring him in. She told a reporter, "I talked my head off about turning himself in, and he said he's working on it. I really just don't think he'll do it in the summertime. Who wants to leave the good weather and go to jail?"

I mean, that's valid.

Pam, that's that's valid.

She's like.

She's like, "I'm trying, but he loves the summertime."

I love that she's he's she's like, "You know what? The kid loves the sun."

Like, what, Pam?

He he loves.

She's like.

Summer vacay.

He wants to go to jail.

Tan.

Who among us.

You can understand this, correct?

Who among us.

Like.

Wants to be inside in the summer?

And I love she was real. She was real.

She's routed.

She was routed.

She was very routed.

She walked me from the real house by she was being real.

Now, for months, investigators on the island felt like they were stuck in a flashback to the previous year when they chased him all over the island, but literally could never catch him. But this time, his crimes were getting a lot more serious. Obviously, he had literally almost blown up a cafe. And also, he was stealing items from people's homes and continuing the credit card theft. But on top of that, he had stolen a car, like we said.

Yeah.

And had also been caught on camera trying to break into ATMs.

Get it together.

Which I'm like, "Damn." And also, this is an island. How could you not catch him breaking into ATMs?

It's a really pretty island as well.

It is. It's cool.

It's cooled up.

Yeah. Now, perhaps the most alarming was an incident in June 2009 when somebody broke into an Island County deputy's car and stole a rifle.

Oh, that's not good.

Chamber of Commerce President Josh Flickner said, "Instead of this punk kid that deserves to be in jail, now you have this guy who's armed."

Yeah, that's scary.

With a fucking rifle.

Yeah. And uh, and uh, I also just want to say, I know I said that it's a pretty island, so like you shouldn't try to break into the ATM. I don't mean like if it's an ugly island, you should try to break into the ATM.

You know what's sad?

I just have to be clear about that.

No, guys, you know what's sad?

Yeah.

Like most of you listening wouldn't think anything about that.

No.

There's at least five of you who started a thread.

Oh, me too.

It was like a little girl.

Elena hates ugly islands and says to break into ATMs on them.

Already drafted a comment.

So thank you for clarifying.

I just needed to be clear.

Jesus Christ.

You sometimes it's hard, you guys. You make it you make it tough in these streets.

I just had to.

So.

Justice for ugly islands.

Yeah, they ugly islands deserve ATMs as well.

Yes.

Rest in peace.

Okay.

Want to be clear on my stance.

Oh, man. Anyways.

So to most on the island, the pretty island, the 2009 rifle theft was evidence that uh, Colton was still lurking about, but Pam didn't think so. She said, "They don't know what they're talking about. I know he's not around here. And the Island County Sheriff's Office knows that too."

Oh, okay.

It doesn't seem like they did.

Got it. Got it, Pam.

It's unclear whether she believed if she was telling the truth or if she was just covering. But it did not take long for detectives to prove that Colton was indeed on the island like they believed. In September, Sharon Mudd arrived to work at the grocery store in East Sound, one of the larger communities on the island. Also, don't take a shot every time I say on the island.

On the island.

It's starting to like lose.

It is all meaning.

Yeah. But they're they just stay on this island.

They do. We're on an island.

But she discovered that the store was ransacked.

On the island.

On the island.

Don't like people would die if they took a shot every time.

Yeah.

I said that. Don't do it.

When people check the security footage or when police check the security footage.

Just people.

They just got together and got the tapes.

People come into the store for the day. They're just like, "Can I check those out?"

Honestly.

They take a look.

There should have been like neighborhood watch or something at this point.

It is an island.

It is, in fact. So they saw the intruder break into the store, uh, drive a pallet jack around causing a lot of damage, and then steal a large number of items before leaving the store.

Also, that's so shitty.

It is. Like clearly that's shitty.

My sympathy has run out for him.

I get it.

Like this is I'm sorry. That's shitty behavior.

It gets a lot worse.

People are going to show up at work now. They're working at a grocery store. You're having a bad morning, and you show up to work, and now you got to clean up this mess.

Yeah.

Come on.

And things were like damaged because he's driving around a pallet jack, and he doesn't know what he's doing.

Yeah. I mean, this is like the office episode where Michael completely ransacks the warehouse, and then he's like, "Don't worry, we'll have someone clean this up."

Yeah.

And the warehouse guy is like, "We're the ones who have to clean this up." That's how I feel about this.

You can relate anything back to the office. Parks and Rec, Gilmore Girls, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

And I will continue.

It's incredible.

It's a talent.

It is. No, it actually is. I think you should we should sign you up for America's Got Talent.

Thanks.

And they can just say things to you, and you can be like, "Okay."

I'll be like, "Wait, there is an episode that corresponds to that."

It's one time Sabrina was cast for the film.

I can.

So while watching the footage, deputies noticed that the intruder had what appeared to be a t-shirt wrapped around his left hand, uh, presumably to cover an injury sustained during the break-in.

Class.

And when they searched the store, investigators found blood drops that were eventually matched to none other than Colton Harris-Moore.

DNA.

Yeah. Now, his crimes at first probably seemed random and juvenile.

Yeah.

But there and there was a kind of logic to some of them, even if he didn't recognize it. In previous sprees, he was stealing from neighbors to buy things like camping gear to make life outdoors more comfortable and sustainable.

Yeah.

But his latest crime spree had a kind of like oblique objective that seemed to be less about amassing goods than it was about finding a thrill.

Yeah.

Like in the beginning, that I think that's where the sympathy comes from, is it's like, "Oh, man, like he's living in the woods. He needs this gear to survive."

Yeah, for sure.

Now he's just like fucking shit up everywhere.

That's the thing.

Yeah.

That's why my sympathy ran out.

Mm-hmm. Now, if you remember, like I because I did tell you to put this in your back pocket. During one of the previous searches for Colton years earlier, they found that Flight Training magazine.

Training magazine.

At one of his campsites. And they didn't think much of it at the time. Like they were like, "I guess he's just being entertained." But since then, he had obtained a lot of a lot more flight manuals and a DVD that provided instructions on how to fly an airplane.

I think he's going to steal an airplane.

Maybe.

Or I think that might be in his thought.

Perhaps.

I'm detectiving.

You're on to something, babe.

I know.

I don't know how you do it.

I know. It's crazy.

Now, up to that point, he had stolen many cars, uh, even a few motorboats, actually.

Whoa.

Yeah. Don't laugh.

Motorboats.

Motorboats. But he um, he took those for joy rides and then abandoned them. But his real goal, you got it, girl, was to steal an airplane.

Just steal an airplane. An airplane.

An a an airplane.

I don't know why I said an airplane.

An airplane, I tell ya. He's going to steal an airplane.

He's going to take to the skies.

It's crazy. So in the fall of 2008, he broke into Bob River's airplane hangar, rifled through various boxes until he found the keys to Bob's 1999 Cessna 182.

Airplanes just have keys?

Yeah, girl. They're not pushed to start. I don't know.

I don't know what I thought it was.

No, I have no idea.

They he just that's we that's crazy to me that you can just find the keys to an airplane.

You got to like turn the engine.

Just be like, "Ooh."

I guess.

Whoa.

Yeah. I wonder if they are pushed to start now.

Maybe.

Google it.

What was this? A Cessna?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Still keys?

They still use physical car-like keys to operate.

Damn, they haven't even adapted to the days.

Damn.

Or the times.

That's crazy.

Well, so he found the keys.

He did.

And that same night, he just took the plane out flying.

He just took to the skies.

Straight up.

Yeah.

He flew, quote, "Clear across Washington's Cascade Mountain Range, probably reaching altitudes of more than 7,000 feet."

Wow.

Yeah.

That's scary.

Several years later, when he was arrested, he described the flight in an interview with 48 Hours. He said the weather that night was not ideal for flying, and he said, "Winds spun the plane upside down. Turbulence caused the plane to dive several thousand feet."

What the fuck?

No.

That's my nightmare.

And he doesn't know what he's doing.

No.

He just watched a DVD and read some magazines.

He knows what he's doing.

Bob Rivers, whose plane it was, also remembered the day of Colton's flight. He was at home when he heard the weatherman describe the conditions on the radio, and he said, "The pilot in me immediately thought, 'I'm glad I'm not flying in that.'" Ironically, about that time, my airplane was flying right overhead.

Fuck.

Like imagine realizing that.

Like later being like, "Yeah, that's the airplane."

My airplane.

That I heard was like, "Oh, somebody that's flying a plane."

Like what an idiot.

It's your plane.

It's my fucking plane.

And it's a teenager flying it.

Insane. After flying about 250 miles.

Wow.

Colton crash-landed the plane and somehow escaped with no injuries.

Now he's just surviving plane crashes.

He's surviving plane crashes, but also, I can imagine that Bob was pretty fucking pissed because I don't think planes are cheap.

Justice for Bob.

Truly.

Bob didn't take that plane out. He knew it was a bad idea.

He knew better.

I would be so pissed if a teenager stole my fucking airplane and crashed it.

Yeah.

They went joy riding in your fucking Cessna?

250 miles away.

I am pissed.

Yeah. Now, so he survived and was like fine. And then about a year later, he stole I think it's called a Cirrus CR-22 from the San Juan Airport in Washington.

What?

And flew it about 14 miles to Orcas Island.

What?

Just stole another airplane and from an airport.

So now this is his thing.

Yeah. Yes.

Okay.

Very much so. And then people with flight experience found the idea that somebody could learn how to fly a plane by reading about it to be impossible. Uh, flight instructor Jim Grant said, "I doubt you could actually teach yourself to fly from a flight manual." But apparently, in addition to reading flight manuals and watching DVDs, later Colton said he was also a big fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator from the time he was a kid.

Oh, okay.

So that helped too.

Yeah, that totally explains everything.

I also was like, "Hey, guys, I think you're missing the part where he crashes the airplanes."

Yeah, but still, how does he even get it up in the air?

It's insane.

Like that's crazy.

It's absolutely hilarious.

It also makes me think like potential wasted.

Because you did figure out how to fly this from flight simulators and like all that. It's like that's pretty.

At least to some degree.

As a teenager.

That actually is really nuts.

Like I'm like, "Okay, there was something there."

Yeah.

That could have been used in a positive way.

That's hutzpah.

That's a lot of things.

It's uh.

It's your favorite it's your favorite word, hubris.

It is. That's definitely hubris.

Yeah. So yeah, he just stole a few planes.

Wow, okay.

Uh, the vehicle and airplane thefts elevated his crime spree to a whole new level.

Literally.

Yeah.

By the winter.

Skies.

The actual skies.

Yeah. By the winter of 2010, he was suspected of stealing airplanes and other vehicles as far east as Illinois.

Whoa.

Typically taking them for a ride before abandoning them wherever he landed or crashed.

Or crashed, she says. He just keeps crashing planes.

Yes.

I think ultimately he crashed five planes. He's crashing planes and walking away.

Yep.

I don't know how to handle this.

Isn't that bonkers.com?

I'm upset.

Does it make you feel a little better?

I guess.

Because they're also small planes too.

Yeah. Driven by like a 17-year-old, I think.

Yeah, who just watched flight simulators.

And read magazines.

Yeah.

Fuck.

Yeah. But like before, the thefts never involved violence or confrontation, but the fact remains that because he was not a skilled pilot and was crash-landing people's planes, it was only a matter of time before somebody got hurt.

Yeah, he's crashing like how can he possibly be hitting unpopulated areas every single time, you know?

Yeah. It's remarkable.

Yeah.

Now, at the same time, his antics were starting to earn him a reputation outside of the Pacific Northwest.

Not in Massachusetts, apparently.

No, I can't believe this didn't get to us because I was in high school too, and it seems like the people that became very like infatuated with his story were my age.

That's crazy.

It is. Uh, by the beginning of 2010, he appeared on several national news programs, which apparently I wasn't watching. Uh, more as a human interest story than anything else.

Like check this kid out.

Literally.

We don't know where he is. He's just stealing planes.

I think that that was basically the script.

Tune in.

Yeah. More more on this at 7:00.

And you tune in and they're like, "Yeah, he's stealing planes." It's crazy.

We don't know where he is.

And he's walking away. He's crashing.

Fucking nuts.

Isn't that nuts?

More on that.

Back to you, G10.

No.

Fuck.

As a result, other news outlets started taking an interest in this fugitive teenager and his fucking remarkable abilities.

Yeah.

Not just to operate an aircraft, but also to continue evading police at this point nearly two years.

Yeah, he's stealthy as hell.

He is. Soon his face was appearing on t-shirts and.

In t-shirts.

And t-shirts. And they were being sold from this like random Seattle print shop, and orders were coming in from all over the US and even further, like abroad.

Can we get it together?

No, we we love an anti-hero.

Like what the fuck is going on?

Yeah, the press coverage eventually led to informal fan groups popping up on social media, and he had kind of become a folk hero.

That's that's social media for you.

Yeah. I mean, this was like the beginning of Facebook, so.

Yeah.

Now, for the most part, the attention and fandom surrounding him and his crime sprees was from a lot of people who never met him and knew very little about his history. But there was one person who seemed very eager to hitch a ride on Colton's newfound fame.

Who was it?

For her entire life, Pam Coler had been ignored and dismissed by everyone she met, and now it seemed she was more than happy to use her son as a pipeline to her own pseudo-fame.

Wow.

What an asshole. I'm like you never even I I don't want to say too much, but I'm like you didn't really do a lot for that kid.

Yeah.

And then you're just like, "Oh, I'm going to be famous now."

And you're hitching on to his fame as like an international fugitive. Like what the fuck? Or national, I should say.

I mean well.

Oh, okay.

National for now, baby.

There we go. So what the fuck?

So anytime a reporter wrote a story about Colton, which happened a lot, Pam found a way to make herself one of the main characters, eventually to the point where it was annoying the residents of the island.

Yeah, because I'm sure they're like, "Hey, this is at our expense."

Yeah.

So can everybody stop?

And also like you're kind of at least part of the reason why he is doing this.

Yeah.

One resident wrote in a letter to the uh editor of the Daily Herald, "As his enabler, I have no doubt that if at any time he needed moral guidance, she was out to lunch."

Wow.

So they were like, "Fuck you." Like come on.

Roasted.

That was that's a good boom roasted.

Yeah.

Now, by the spring of 2010, his story made it to shows like uh Dateline, 48 Hours. Apparently, we were living under rocks at this point in time.

Yeah, that sucks.

Because I was watching Dateline at this point in time.

Yeah, like what's going on?

Uh, but true to form, the press looked for a unique angle that would catch on with the public, and they found it in a pretty unusual place. By then, Colton had stolen several planes, like I said. Also cars, boats, valuables, you name it. But all of his crimes were committed when the victim was was away, and he never seemed to consider all the evidence that he was leaving behind. But of all the things that could have caught journalists' attention, it was the fact that at most of the crime scenes, investigators found bare footprints.

I was wondering where that came in.

So it became he was the Barefoot Bandit.

Okay.

So simple.

So simple.

I feel like he just wasn't going to come up with a cool airplane name.

I know because that's not really telling me the story.

The pilot Bandit.

The Barefoot Bandit.

It's not really telling you the story.

No.

Writer.

Oh, do it.

Can you put me on the spot there?

I mean, airplanes like you got to you got to like add aviation into it somehow, you know?

AyleSteelya Earhart.

AyleSteelya Earhart. I like that you made it a drag name, Mikey.

What the fuck?

Mikey is in the stew today, and he Mikey showed up for work just then.

And Mikey just pulled a drag name right out right out.

The gays are clicking their fingers.

That's I can't believe it.

Index to thumb finger right there, babe.

I can't believe what did you say? AyleSteelya Earhart?

Yeah, that's I can't I was going to try for aviation something. That's not good enough.

Forget the Barefoot Bandit.

Forget that. I would like in parentheses for this episode to be titled.

AyleSteelya Earhart.

AyleSteelya Earhart. Yeah. Yeah. Period.

Yep. That was iconic.

That wow. The fact that that just came into your brain.

Yeah, he showed up.

He yeah, clocked in, bitch. You got to race. So by early spring, Colton's celebrity had overtaken the more significant facts of the case. Like the fact that he was um a fugitive suspected of over 50 burglaries.

Yeah.

And he had I mean caused incalculable damage to private property, including airplanes.

But it's fun.

Yeah.

So.

Super fun. But while the press and the public were uh caught up in his anti-hero status and his bare feet, law enforcement officials and then around the island had not lost focus, and the victims also hadn't forgotten their losses.

Yeah.

At the end of May, Colton's exploits were getting bigger and more daring. And around that time, he was caught on security camera stealing a sport fishing boat and taking it for a jaw ride and then just abandoning it in the harbor.

Because that's the other thing. Like the thing that pisses me off is I'm like that's not yours.

Yeah.

You're taught that as a kid or you should be taught that as a kid.

You are not.

It's not yours. You don't get to and also it's not even like he's taking it for a joy ride and bringing it back.

No, he's just leaving.

He's just abandoning things or crashing things.

Or smashing them.

It's like you're destroying them afterwards. That's shitty.

Yeah. Well, and while the crime like this particular one might have been similar to those that he'd committed in the past, the difference now was that he was leaving his usual territory, the and the island community that had kind of really given him a long leash to make mistakes.

Yeah.

Now he was 6'5" and.

6'5"?

Yeah, he's a tall ass motherfucker.

Whoa.

And he's 18 years old. He wasn't a kid anymore. And the risk to his own or other safety increased exponentially, especially the farther away from home that he was going.

Yeah.

So as summer neared, the entire island community started to suffer as a result of Colton's newfound fame.

Uh-uh.

Once popular with tourists, the uh Kamano's island tourist industry saw saw a sharp decline in visitors.

Yeah, they don't want to get stolen from.

Even the housing market had seen a decline because people didn't want to buy a house in an area where a high-profile burglar was constantly on the loose.

Yeah, he wasn't even caught.

That's the thing. One realtor explained he had quote "been forced to explain to homebuyers that the island is still a safe community. He just spent more time talking about security systems."

Which sucks.

Also, like if you have to talk me into a security system before I've even bought this house.

Yeah, it's a no.

I don't love that. So hoping to see the case come to an end peacefully and without incident, residents on the island came together and they hired Everett Washington bounty hunter Mike Rocha.

A bounty hunter.

It's like dog, but we're probably a better person.

I was just going to say that.

They were like, "Track this boy down and get him prosecuted." The local police welcomed any support in capturing Colton, but they stressed that apprehension is only one piece of the work. The real hurdle was going to be putting together enough evidence to keep him locked up.

Yeah.

So for more than a month, the bounty hunter and the detectives worked separately because they could not work together. And they were tracking Colton's movements based on crimes committed with a similar MO from Washington to Oregon to Indiana, which is insane when you think about how far spread that goes. When a string of crimes matching Colton's history occurred in Iowa in mid-June, it became apparent that he was moving towards us to the east.

Moving towards us.

And we had no idea.

Mhm. We didn't even know.

And he was likely aware that a manhunt was underway. Finally, on June 6th, investigators caught a break when a plane was stolen from Indiana and discovered crashed in the Bahamas from Indiana to the Bahamas.

An international incident.

Like I told you, I knew you were on to something. Within a few days, an FBI lab processed the DNA collected from the fucking crashed plane site and found that it was a match for Colton Harris-Moore.

He's walking away from another plane crash.

Another one. Completely out of his element now in the Bahamas and without any real resources to speak of. Finally, investigators had gained an advantage over him. Working with local Bahamian authorities, American law enforcement officials started interviewing recent robbery victims on the island and put together a timeline kind of putting a path of where he had been. The saga of the Barefoot Bandit finally came to an end on the evening of July 11th when a Bahamian resort manager, Anne Ward, got a text message from a friend that said, "The Barefoot Bandit is at your marina."

What a call.

Can you imagine?

What a call to get.

Now, immediately she contacted the security manager at the resort and told him to start searching the marina.

For people with no shoes.

For barefoot motherfuckers, which I could assume there's a lot in the Bahamas.

Probably.

It's a little tough, but uh she contacted the police while her manager started looking. Now, eventually the security manager spotted Colton prowling around the docks and called out to him.

He was trying to steal a boat.

Yes. So he start he starts running because the guy called out to him.

Of course.

The guard chased Colton in a large loop until they ended up back at the docks where Colton tried and failed to start several of the smaller boats before eventually successfully starting a larger fishing boat. Unfortunately, though, he misjudged the tides and his inexperience with a larger vessel caused him to ground the boat on the rocks immediately after he pulled away, which also uh I'd be fucking pissed.

Because now you fucked up the boat.

You ground a boat like that's really bad. Knowing the game was over, he pulled a gun from his waistband and placed it against his head.

Oh no.

And tossed a backpack full of stolen items into the harbor. It took some time, but local police were eventually able to convince him to put the gun down and surrender. And after two years on the run from the police.

Two years.

His war was finally over.

Two years and several planes.

Five.

And several plane crashes.

Five planes, who knows how many boats, cars, credit cards, all of it.

Damn.

Now, a week after his initial arrest, he was deported to uh Miami and then taken into custody by the FBI. Within a few days, he was flown back to Seattle.

He didn't fly?

No, he didn't. They they he was like, "You want me to?"

Yeah, he's like, "I can conspire."

They were like, "No." Um, he was indicted on numerous charges, including burglary, destruction of property, and evading the police. By that time, he was exhausted from all the running, and his lawyer, Monique Gomez, explained, "He just wanted to go home."

Oh, that's really sad.

Really sad.

But like what the fuck?

It's a little too late for that, buddy.

Yeah. I the sadness of the of the little kid is not hitting me as hard.

But it's also the sadness hits me a little bit because I'm like you don't really have a home.

I know. That's true.

You know? And I'm also like, "Do you mean your mom's house or do you mean the woods?"

Yeah.

Now, given the extent of the crime spree and the number of states now involved, his pretrial hearing was very long, very complicated. Finally, on June 18th, 2011, almost a full year after he was captured in the Bahamas, he appeared in a Seattle court where he pleaded guilty to seven federal charges, quote, "including stealing airplanes, a boat, and firearms, and transporting them across state and sometimes national boundaries."

Anti-oop.

Anti-motherfucking-oop.

Yeah.

So he entered a plea um which was that plea was part of a larger plea deal arranged with the prosecutor's office that included his promise not to um attempt to profit off his own story at all.

Because they were like this is a story. So.

Oh, you could make so much money on this story and we will find out just how much you could make.

Oh shit.

There was a provision carved out that would allow any sale of his story to contribute to the $1.4 million in restitution that he owed to the victims of his crimes.

Damn. I thought it would be more to be honest.

I know. Well.

Just two years.

2010. So.

So many big things.

Hold on. Let's see.

Because think about how many planes he's ruined.

Well, you also have to think of how many.

Those alone.

I wonder how many people were able to prove that like it was their plane.

That's why it's like it's clearly a lot more than that.

Yeah.

That's all they could do.

That would be like $2.1 million now.

Yeah.

Um, now six months later, he he appeared in Coopville Washington court where he pleaded guilty to 33 state charges.

Wow.

For burglaries committed on and around Kamano Island. He held back tears when the judge announced that in exchange for his guilty plea, he would be sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in state prison, which honestly is like not that hefty of a sentence when you think about it.

It's happened here.

The sentence was actually a compromise between the state's request for the maximum of 9 years and the defense's request for 6 years. And it was also heavily influenced by his history of abuse that he had suffered. His lawyer, John Henry Brown, said later, "I'm not surprised that Colton survived five plane crashes, but I'm completely surprised that he survived his mother."

Oh, that's horrific.

And that also tells you just how bad things were.

I'm not surprised that he survived five plane crashes.

Yeah.

But his mom was a different like that's really sad.

It's horrific. Now, he ultimately served 5 years of the sentence before being transferred to a work release program in uh September of 2016.

Wow.

By 2019, he was able to pay a large portion of the restitution back to the victims.

Wow.

Thanks to 20th Century Fox who purchased the rights uh to his story for a movie.

Oh shit.

Apparently, the movie stalled. But it seems that the last Colton said about this entire ordeal is, "I've learned from my past. I do not run from it, but instead try to embrace it for the better. I hope to serve as a model for people who have hard lives and feel hopeless. I saw it every day when I was confined and I have seen it in the world upon release."

Wow.

And now he's just like seems like he's on the straight and narrow.

I hope so.

The last update that I saw was that he was in some kind of like real estate venture.

Okay.

So he seems like he turned his life around.

All right. I am all for you didn't physically harm anyone, so I'm all for you getting it together.

Yeah.

Damn.

That's the story.

Holy shit.

The Barefoot Bandit. I cannot believe we had never heard of this.

Yeah. How did we not?

I don't know.

Did anyone else hear about this?

Dave did.

Nobody did.

Did you hear about it?

No, Dave was telling me about it and I was like, "Fuck yeah, I'll do that one."

Shit. So none of us heard about it. Okay, I'm glad we're not alone here.

I'm so glad.

Because I thought everyone in the room was going to be like actually it was on the news every single day.

You were literally a rock.

Yeah.

Yeah. So that's a crazy one.

Shout out to Dave for finding that.

Hell yeah.

Here's a fun fact for you. The tin can was invented 48 years before the tin can opener was invented.

The fuck were they doing in those 48 years?

Lots of screw drummers.

Did they have peel offs at that point or is that like a really new innovation?

I don't know.

Huh.

I'm frustrated for those 48 years, though.

Yeah.

Because what are you doing?

You have to get really good at it.

Banging it against a rock?

Probably.

Getting real primitive up in here.

Sharp knives. But then you have to think like if you open it with like a sharp knife, is there shards in your food?

Well, that's the thing. It's like you got to be careful.

Hold on. I'm I got to see how they were opening cans before that. All right. Before No. Before the can opener was invented, people had this is from Google had to use heavy-duty tools or makeshift methods. There was the hammer and chisel.

Obviously.

That's fun. So like you know about that. They did knives, bayonets, and axes. And then like you just said bayonets. Yeah, bayonets.

Okay.

And then rocks and smash stones.

See, okay, we were on it. We would have figured it out.

That's so crazy.

I feel okay about those 48 years now. We we had come up with several of those.

Yeah. And it was Ezra J. Warner. So, shout out to your boy.

Ezra. I love that name.

I do. Ezra is a great name.

Ezra is a cool name.

Yeah, I like Ezra from Dancing with the Stars.

Me too. I'm so the girls.

I'm He's my winner.

Yeah.

Yeah. Ezra Freck. Ezra Freck.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Him, Tatiana, and Mara are our favorites.

I've been waiting to say this like I'm wanting to say this. Everybody vote for Tatiana because the scores that she is getting are not applicable to her dances. And I've had enough.

Me too.

Fun fact to end this whole thing. I've had enough.

Fucked fact.

Fucked fact.

I'll punch you in the face if you don't vote for Tatiana.

Period. And I'll watch. So, 21523 or 21325, can't remember. Tune in, vote.

Whoa.

I know.

That was impressive.

Thank you so much.

Holy shit. I'm newer, so I didn't have that kind of information.

And it's Tatiana with a Y. T A T Y A N A. Vote for her.

Do it.

Because I also love Jan.

I do too.

And that's Dancing with the Stars.

With us. Thank you.

We hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird.

As weird as us.