Colton Harris-Moore hopes to leave the ‘Barefoot Bandit’ moniker behind

Colton Harris-Moore has left the “Barefoot Bandit” moniker behind, and he says he’s been on the right path for months after his release from a nearly seven-year jail term.

That jail term followed a string of thefts and burglaries, and included teaching himself to steal and fly multiple aircraft.

Now he’s asking the judge to be let off of probation early, with only four months remaining. Harris-Moore joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss his checkered past and what he hopes to do in the near future.

“It’s been nearly 10 years since all this started,” he said. “Every bit of time counts and my goal is to take back my life and regain my freedom, and if I can do that four months early, I’m going to do that.”

Colton Harris-Moore says he’s been building relationships and working on several projects, including potentially becoming a motivational speaker.

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“But what I’ve encountered is of an upward limit to what I’m able to do, and it’s systematically imposed, and because of that I think that I’ve had a very boring and basic life, certainly not anywhere near the amount of success that I think anybody would reasonably expect I would have without that restriction.”

Harris-Moore first came to the public’s attention after he escaped from a Renton juvenile halfway house in 2008, and began a series of thefts and burglaries he committed around the Pacific Northwest, some of which were apparently committed barefoot. Along the way he taught himself to fly and stole numerous aircraft, a boat, and a couple of cars.

Police caught up to Harris-Moore at the age of 19 in 2010, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison, before being released on probation in September of 2016. Harris sold the rights to his life story to 20th Century Fox for $1.4 million, all of which went toward restitution. His debt of approximately $1.3 million has mostly been paid, with about $97,000 remaining, he said.

Harris-Moore hates ‘Barefoot Bandit’ moniker

While attempting to begin a new chapter of his life, Harris-Moore is fighting against the notion that he’ll forever be the “Barefoot Bandit.” He hates the moniker.

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“The best explanation I have I’ve been able to come up with for why they (the media) use the word ‘Barefoot Bandit’ is because the past won’t let go,” he said. “There seems to be this almost subconscious inclination to keep the past alive. The government actually replied to my one of our replies in the process of filing this motion, and they called me the ‘Barefoot Bandit.’ They didn’t say ‘also known as.'”

Harris-Moore hopes to recover much of the lost time that his crimes caused him, which is why he wants to get on with his life as soon as he can.

“I don’t consider my past necessarily as a waste of time, but it led to consequences that took a tremendous amount of time which I never anticipated,” he said. “You only have one life. You only have so many years, and you can only afford to spend so many months not doing anything.”

“What the past 10 to 15 years has really ingrained in me is a keen appreciation and really obsession for not wasting time and moving forward as quickly as possible.”

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