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Elusive teen frustrates police

ON THE RUN: Suspect thought to be going island to island

BY GENE JOHNSON | The Associated Press • Published October 07, 2009

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EASTSOUND - 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 “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.