He’s sure come a long way since I posted a story about him on May 9, 2010
BAREFOOT BANDIT ON THE RUN IN THE BAHAMAS: TEENAGE FACEBOOK ‘HERO’ FLIES TO CARIBBEAN AFTER STEALING PLANE
Mail Online
July 9, 2010
_Has stolen cars and FOUR planes to get from West Coast in U.S. to Bahamas
_His mother says: 'I'm glad he's able to enjoy beautiful islands'
_Learnt how to fly by playing computer games and reading instruction manuals
_Police after him since 2007 when he broke out of a juvenile detention centre
A teenage Facebook cult hero, known as the Barefoot Bandit, is believed to have crash-landed a plane in the Bahamas to continue his crime spree.
Colton Harris-Moore, 19, has more than 70,000 followers on Facebook and has been at large in the U.S. since escaping from a juvenile detention centre in 2007.
He has been dubbed the 'Barefoot Bandit' for allegedly committing some crimes while shoeless and during one break-in drew footprints on a shop floor in chalk with the remark 'C-YA!'.
The teenager has been steadily moving eastwards across from his home state in Washington on the U.S. West Coast stealing cars and planes as he goes.
The Cessna he took to the Bahamas is believed to be the fourth plane he has stolen, including one belonging to a Seattle radio DJ.
He has had no flight training and is said to be self-taught through playing flight-simulator games and reading instruction manuals.
The 6ft 5in teenager is now said to be on the run on Great Abaco Island and surviving by breaking into homes and businesses at night to get food.
For the past five days soldiers and police armed with shotguns on the Caribbean island have been hunting him. They have now put up a $10,000 (£6,600) reward for information leading to his arrest.
Police and soldiers were patrolling the island's coastlines and airports as investigators followed a trail of seven break-ins leading north from the mangrove-lined inlet where the Cessna was abandoned on Sunday in knee-deep water.
Burglary victims say the thief appeared to be looking mainly for cash and Internet access. At the Curly Tails restaurant in Marsh Harbour, where Harris-Moore was apparently videotaped by security cameras during a Tuesday morning break-in, owner Alistair McDonald said the burglar moved cables on the modem and carried his own laptop computer.
He has been linked to dozens of burglaries [since 2007] and at least four other airplane thefts. He earned the Barefoot Bandit nickname because he allegedly went shoeless for some of his crimes and left behind footprints.
The latest saga began when Harris-Moore allegedly stole the single-engine Cessna from an airport in Bloomington, Indiana, and flew it more than 1,000 miles to the low-lying island chain off the Florida coast.
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