Sunday, July 11, 2010

Colton Harris-Moore's Death Wish

For over two years Colton Harris-Moore stayed about seven steps ahead of The Heat.  He spent years hiding out in the San Juan Islands, 50 miles up the coast from Seattle.  He broke into dozens (actually, probably hundreds?) of houses and businesses, stole cars, powerboats and quite a few airplanes, and somehow, he acquired a rep as a 21st-century folk hero. He was not a Robin Hood, but a guy who thumbed his nose at cops and prosecutors.  In the end, Colton Harris-Moore's fame probably led to his downfall.  When authorities knew he was in The Bahamas, they papered the islands with flyers of his likeness.  And then yesterday, the police found him in a stolen boat in very shallow water.  He tried to outrace them, but in the end, he was caught.





































After he crash landed a plane stolen in the U.S. near the coast of the Bahamas, broke into a few businesses and grabbed a few boats, they made a D.N.A. match.  Witnesses on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera recognized the 19-year-old Barefoot Bandit from the flyers and called the cops, who nailed him today, (Sunday) after a high-speed boat chase.  What was he thinking?  A six foot five American blending into a country where people were mostly Bahama natives a foot shorter than Harris-Moore?  He was far better off hiding on Puget Sound, where presumably friends and family leant a helping hand.  Never emerging in daylight seemed like the sensible move.  On the other hand, maybe it was a death wish.  After he branched out from the Pacific Northwest, he seemed to get increasingly sloppy in the midwest and the Caribbean.  He may have been tired of running.  It looks like he will do some time in the Bahamas, and then be shipped back to the U.S., where there are dozens of cases pending against him in several states.

He does have John Henry Brown, the criminal defense lawyer, as his counsel.  But I don't think he'll slip out of this one...
---o0o---

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