Barefoot and busted

The trail came to an abrupt end for Colton Harris-Moore early Sunday.

The teen fugitive who is a suspect in a string of burglaries, as well as multiple car, boat and five airplane thefts over two years, was captured in his bare feet as he attempted to flee from authorities in a stolen boat near Harbour Island, a small tourist location in the Bahamas just off mainland Eleuthera, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Harris-Moore had reached the island in a 15-foot skiff and was attempting to make his getaway in another boat he had stolen from Romora Bay Resort and Marina, explained Ellison Greenslade, commissioner of the Royal Police Force, during a news conference Sunday afternoon.

The “catch me if you can” chase ended when police shot out the engine of the 30-foot boat after it ran aground during low tide. Harris-Moore was attempting to make a brief high-speed escape and was subsequently arrested, but not before he reportedly threw a computer in the water and put a gun to his head, CNN reported resort manager Anne Ward to say. He allegedly was going to kill himself but police convinced him to put down the weapon, Ward said.

Camano’s infamous outlaw was then taken into custody and flown to Nassau, the country’s capital city where he stands possible extradition to the United States. Greensdale said Harris-Moore, 19, would be arraigned on several criminal charges later this week.

A week ago, Harris-Moore became the suspect pilot of a stolen plane that crash landed in a few feet of water near the shores of Great Abaco Island where seven burglaries reportedly took place following the landing. Emergency crews crews found no sign of a pilot inside the damaged Cessna 400 that had been flown from Indiana to the Bahamas on a single tank of fuel, The plane was undetected by air traffic controllers during the more than 1,000 mile journey.

Despite the fact the teen has had no formal pilot training, it is believed Harris Moore taught himself to fly from reading books and studying flight manuals on the Internet.

He was apprehended Sunday 40 miles south of where the pilot of the plane crash-landed.

The incident followed a swath of burglaries and car thefts that fit the suspect’s MO of “in here and gone,” which began in Oregon and continued in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

He had eluded capture since April 2008 when he climbed out the window of a Renton group home. Since then he has been a suspect in thefts estimated to be worth more than $3 million ranging from Camano Island to Orcas Island.

He got the nickname of the barefoot bandit because he often made his escape shoeless.

Residents on Camano breathed a sigh of relief after learning of the “barefoot bandit’s” capture.

Rena Will lives on the south end of the island and believes it was Harris- Moore who stole her purse out of her vehicle during one of several car prowls done in one evening. It occurred after a stolen boat from Orcas Island was discovered on the shores of Camano in May. She was amazed he had avoided capture so long.

“I’m surprised it took a another country to catch him,” said Will. “Now he needs to pay for what he has done. What a waste of a life who had all that potential.”

Pamela Kohler, Harris- Moore’s mother, issued this statement through her Seattle attorney, O. Yale Lewis:

“I am very relieved that Colt is now safe and that no one was hurt during his capture. I have not yet been able to speak to him. It has been over two-and-a-half years since I have seen him, and I miss him terribly. I hope that it will be possible for me to see him sometime soon. However, I don’t yet know when that might happen.”

Kohler retained highprofile Seattle attorney John Henry Browne for her son in early June. As of Monday, Harris-Moore had not yet contacted him.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown said he was “thankful that Colton Harris Moore has been taken into custody by the Bahamian authorities,” in a statement released on Sunday. He added, “Now agencies whose citizens have been victimized by this fugitive can begin coordinating the legal process of holding him accountable for the numerous crimes he has committed.”

Browne told Matt Lauer on the “Today Show” that if Harris-Moore were not such a celebrity he would serve less time for all his combined crimes.

As it stands, he estimates Harris-Moore’s time in federal prison, if crimes are consolidated to avoid an administrative nightmare, would be between four and 12 years.