Colton back on Orcas?
Colton Harris-Moore may have thought his national notoriety had dimmed lately.
He need not worry.
Harris-Moore is now the prime suspect of a stolen Cirrus SR22 plane stolen from Anacortes Airport that was flown to Orcas Island Wednesday night about 11:30 p.m. It was discovered parked in the mud the next morning alongside an airstrip at Eastsound Airport.
All the excitement may have gotten him a bit hungry, sometime early Thursday morning Orcas Market and Gourmet Deli was burglarized. Food was taken, over-sized chalked footprints left behind, and the hard drive of a security system was found in a sink being bathed in running water.
Harris-Moore has often been referred to as the barefoot bandit in the media, because the 6-foot- 5 young man has often fled from crimes without shoes.
San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cummings said all signs point toward Harris- Moore.
“We have markings that are similar to his past escapades,” he said.
The 18-year-old Camano Island teen has managed to avoid capture since he walked away from a group home nearly two years ago. His outlandish behavior, which he remains a suspect in, includes stealing luxury cars, boats and planes.
“He’s highly mobile,” said Cummings. “Sometimes we know his mode of transportation and sometimes we don’t.”
It has gained him folkhero status and has drawn worldwide attention.
San Juan County Sheriff’s Office is currently collecting physical evidence and checking on “anything left that can tie him to the scene,” said Cummings.
Last summer, he left behind his DNA calling card on a cash machine that was vandalized on Orcas Island during a crime spree that included some 20 residential break-ins and a plane stolen. -
He was also thought to be the suspect who crashed a stolen plane found near Granite Falls in October, which was taken from Bonners Ferry Airport in Boundary County, Idaho.
There are currently 10 outstanding felony charges against the teen in Island County.
“We are on heightened alert and gearing to look for this guy,” said Cummings.
