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 Linda Thomas
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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Colton Harris-Moore turns 20

March 22, 2011 @ 2:19 am (Updated: 3:46 pm - 3/28/11 )

Listen to this report

Birthdays are a big deal on Facebook, where "Happy Birthday" messages pop up from dozens of friends on your special day. Colton Harris-Moore, who has almost 40,000 Facebook fans, is likely to get some messages of support when he turns 20 years old today.

A lot of what we think we know about the Barefoot Bandit is not completely true, as I found out by talking with one of the first journalists to pick up the story.

Newspaper reporter Jackson Holtz, with The Herald of Everett , was working the crime beat five years ago when he heard about a 15-year-old boy suspected of breaking into a couple of homes on Camano Island.

"The story created quite a sensation at the time because there were all these stories about this young kid who was believed to be living in the woods, who ran barefoot from police, who evaded capture for six months," says Holtz.

Police caught the young kid, Colton Harris-Moore, and he ended up in a juvenile lock up.

End of story.

Until he escaped from a half-way house in 2008.

CHM-15

Colton Harris-Moore, then 15, in a Coupeville courtroom in February 2007. At the time, he was charged with 12 counts of possession of stolen property, some dating back to September 2006. File photo from The Herald of Everett.

Harris-Moore became a national curiosity when the San Juan County Sheriff's office announced the teen had stolen two airplanes, and had escaped from Point Roberts and had possibly made it to Canada.

"So now not only do we have a teenager, a felon who had evaded police for several months, but we had somebody who had no known flight experience stealing airplanes, crashing them and surviving," he says. "That triggered national press interest and that's when his fan following began on the Internet.

Holtz wrote a book about Harris-Moore called "Fly, Colton, Fly: The True Story of the Barefoot Bandit ." It'll be out April 5th. It looks at facts about the case, and exposes myths about the teen bandit.

"He wasn't really living in the trees, or living in the woods. He was more frequently couch surfing in vacation homes," Holtz says.

As for Harris-Moore's nickname the "Barefoot Bandit," evidence shows most of the time he had shoes on. In later interviews his mother seemed supportive of her son. Again, not the case Holtz says. Court records show there were "dozens of interactions with state CPS" and people who tried to bring stability to the household, but that help was turned down.

Holtz advises people to continue being suspicious about what they hear and read about Harris-Moore, including comments that he's remorseful and now spends his time alone in his cell drawing airplanes.

"Lots of the things that we've learned about Colton we've learned after his arrest from his defense attorney," he says. "I think those need to be taken in the context that this is John Henry Brown, a very good defense attorney, who will be saying things that only help Colton."

Colton2 Holtz says he was ready to write the book on Harris-Moore's story because he had an ending for it, after the now 20-year-old fugitive's arrest in the Bahamas last summer.

In November, he was indicted indicted on charges of interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft and being a fugitive in possession of a firearm, among other charges.

He's scheduled for trial July 11 in connection with an alleged two-year international crime spree. (AP file photo)

But, the story is not over yet.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we're not shocked and that there aren't more chapters to this story that come through the criminal proceedings," he says.

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (19)


  • Add A Comment

  • Oly80 wrote...
    PLEASE...
    March 22, 2011 6:24 am
    get this kid out of the spotlight. he's no role-model, and his story has a pretty lame plot: kid runs away. kids breaks into houses to sleep. kid steals a couple of rich peoples' planes only to find out he can't really fly them and amazingly didn't die when he destroyed them. kid kept running from cops. get finally gets caught when people in the carribean buck up, pull guns on the kid and tell him to surrender. end of story. this kid needs his spanking from court and needs to go away for a long while to think about what he's done.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    Oly80
    March 22, 2011 6:47 am
    agree 100%

    No more stories about him.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Country_Dog wrote...
    Agreed
    March 22, 2011 7:05 am
    No more stories on this jerk. I only logged on to this story to post. I didn't even read the story. May the kid celebrate his 50th in prison as well.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    This story...
    March 22, 2011 7:13 am
    Falls under the category of "anything else that grabs her attention."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • MG345 wrote...
    Hey The Olds Chick
    March 22, 2011 7:23 am
    tomorrow is my birthday, wanna do a story?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    MG345..
    March 22, 2011 7:31 am
    Back it down a bit..
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    It's gonna be....
    March 22, 2011 7:38 am
    One of those grumpy, snarky days, eh people?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    The media created Colton H Moore
    March 22, 2011 7:39 am
    So it isn't surprising the media will wring every possible nickel out of his misfortune.

    This kid is a remorseless punk egged on by the media; not Robin Hood. But I guess he can be used to sell Corn Flakes, Viagara, and cell phones until the real Robin Hood emerges for several hundred years of self-imposed seculsion.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • JMGilday wrote...
    CHM turns 20 in prison
    March 22, 2011 7:53 am
    and 25 and 30 and 35 and 40 and 45

    by then his mom will be dead and the rotten influence will have passed and we as a society MIGHT be safe from the self-centered antics of CHM.

    On a different (yet somehow related) topic... did anyone see the interview with the 12 year old bully that was so satisfyingly body slammed into the concrete?

    The most telling insight was that this 12 year old child was permitted by his parent(s) to have his eyebrow pierced, a stupid foot long super-slim pony tail (maybe 20 hairs total) and god-knows-what other fad-of-the-moment.

    Another kid the parents ruined.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    JMGilday
    March 22, 2011 8:10 am
    I did see that interview. I've always been amazed at how little parents know about what their kids do in school. With the problem parent/child relationships I've observed it starts with parents wanting to be their child's best friend.
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