The Barefoot Bandit: Catch Him If You Can

Summary

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Chameleon – "The Barefoot Bandit: Catch Him If You Can"

Podcast: Chameleon
Host: Josh Dean, with guest journalist Jackson Holtz
Date: December 4, 2025
Episode Theme:
An in-depth look at the remarkable, stranger-than-fiction saga of Colton Harris-Moore—better known as the “Barefoot Bandit”—whose notorious crime spree made him America’s first folk hero of the social media age. The episode explores his troubled upbringing, audacious exploits, how he evaded law enforcement for years, his explosive rise to fame online, and his life after incarceration.

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Main Topics and Key Discussion Points

1. Origins: A Press Release Sets the Story in Motion (01:39–02:46)

• In 2007, crime reporter Jackson Holtz receives a peculiar old-fashioned wanted poster for two teenage burglary suspects, Colton Harris-Moore and his friend Harley Davidson Iron Wing.
• Both teens lived out of the woods, breaking into vacation homes for food and supplies.

Quote:
“His famous trait was that he was known to run barefoot off into the woods.”
—Jackson Holtz (03:02)

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2. Colton’s Early Life and the Beginnings of His Crime Spree (06:01–07:33)

• Colton grows up in poverty and instability on Camano Island, Washington; his father abandons him, and his mother struggles to provide.
• He starts stealing to survive, breaking into garages for food before escalating to electronics and credit cards.
• Demonstrates early cunning, using stolen goods to fund further exploits, and even uses bear spray to avoid arrest.

Quote:
“To have to resort to breaking into your neighbor's garages to steal frozen dinners—that’s just not how kids should grow up.”
—Jackson Holtz (06:49)

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3. First Arrest, Escape, and Escalation (07:43–09:00)

• At 16, Colton is convicted and sent to juvenile detention, then a halfway house; he escapes out a window at night (April 2008).
• Returns to burglaries, grows more daring, and his local notoriety builds.
• The turning point: police suspect him in two separate airplane thefts—crimes that will shape his legend.

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4. The Flight Path: Plane Theft and Becoming the Barefoot Bandit (09:00–13:02)

• Without formal training, Colton steals his first plane, taking off from Orcas Island and crash-landing 300 miles away on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
• Over the next year, he steals and crashes four more planes, expertly evading police.
• His mother, when asked by reporters, fans the folklore by saying she wishes she'd sent him to flight school.

Quote:
“If you’re gonna steal airplanes, steal twin engines, because that way if one engine fails, you’ll still have another.”
—Paraphrased from Colton’s mother, Pam Kohler (11:49)

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5. Internet Fame: The First Outlaw of the Social Media Age (14:30–16:26)

• National attention grows as the Associated Press dubs him “The Barefoot Bandit.”
• Colton’s story explodes online: 60,000+ join his fan group, t-shirts and folk songs proliferate, and major media begin global coverage.
• Part of the legend: chalk-drawn barefoot prints at crime scenes with taunting messages (“cya, see you later”).

Quote:
“There’s now a Facebook page following Colton Harris Moore and his exploits. … This is really the first outlaw of the social media age.”
—Jackson Holtz (14:57)

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6. The Manhunt Intensifies and the Folk Hero Persona Grows (13:02–17:57)

• Pursued by SWAT and bounty hunters as his escapades cross state lines.
• Despite the attention, he repeatedly outsmarts police, drawing increased resources and concern.

—Memorable gesture: leaves $100 and a handwritten note at a vet clinic for animal care.
“Drove by, had some extra cash. Please use this money for the care of animals. Signed Colton Harris Moore, AKA the Barefoot Bandit.” (17:37)

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7. Cross-Country Chase, Fifth Plane Theft, and the Bahamas Finale (18:30–21:26)

• The FBI offers a $10,000 reward; Colton’s crime spree becomes a breadcrumb trail across multiple states.
• Steals a high-end Cessna in Indiana and flies over 1,000 miles to the Bahamas, crash-landing in swampland but surviving—his fifth plane crash.
• The Bahamian police catch him after a dramatic boat chase involving gunfire.

Quote:
“Police fired on his boat, disabling one engine with a shotgun, the other with an Uzi. By 3:15 Sunday morning, he was taken off that bullet-ridden boat and into custody.”
—Summary of ABC News report, paraphrased by Josh Dean (21:06)

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8. Sentencing, Aftermath, and Cultural Impact (24:12–30:39)

• Judge Vicki Churchill calls Colton’s case both a tragedy and “a triumph of the human spirit” (24:12).
• While incarcerated, Colton attempts to set up a crowdfunding campaign for cryogenic preservation of his dying mother—demonstrating both his devotion and his idiosyncrasy.
• Upon release, he distances himself from his old identity and strives for a new start, seeking to pay restitution and earn money through motivational speaking.
• Expresses regret, wanting to shed the “Barefoot Bandit” label.

Quote:
“My name’s Colton Harris Moore, and I think that the past is the past. That’s the most important message I have. You make mistakes, you live, you learn, and you move on.”
—Colton Harris Moore (28:50)

Quote:
“I witnessed… the creation of an American outlaw folk hero. And he was the first outlaw of the social media age.”
—Jackson Holtz (29:22)

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Notable & Memorable Moments

• First Arrest Surrender: Colton only gives up to police when allowed to talk to his mother (04:04).
• Folk Hero Status: The chalk footprints at the food co-op—“cya, see you later”—cementing his legend (14:04).
• International Chase: Flying unschooled from Indiana to the Bahamas (19:40–20:10).
• Final Message: Colton pushes back on the “Barefoot Bandit” moniker, yearning for a future beyond teenage infamy (28:50).

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Takeaways & Reflections

• Colton Harris-Moore’s story is a collision of poverty, frustration, ingenuity, and the amplification of media—particularly social media—in shaping the myth of a criminal outlaw.
• The episode reflects on Colton’s troubled upbringing, his unusual skills and daring escapes, his cult-like internet fame, and his later efforts to build a new, more positive adult identity.
• The creators acknowledge the very real tragedies behind the legend, while marveling at the sheer audacity and luck that let Colton—against all odds—survive.

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Key Timestamps

• 01:39 – The original wanted poster and Camano Island setting
• 03:02 – “He was known to run barefoot off into the woods.”
• 06:01 – Colton’s early life and first forays into crime
• 09:00 – The first airplane theft
• 11:49 – “If you’re gonna steal airplanes, steal twin engines…”
• 14:04 – “Cya, see you later”—the chalk footprints
• 14:57 – Explosion of online fame and Facebook fan pages
• 17:37 – The note left at the vet clinic
• 19:40 – The Bahamas flight and crash
• 21:06 – Capture in the Bahamas, ABC News summary
• 24:12 – Sentencing and Judge Churchill’s reflections
• 28:50 – Colton on letting go of the past

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Chameleon's retelling captures the legend and the humanity in one of the most improbable American crime stories of the 21st century—a young man fleeing into the woods barefoot, into the sky without lessons, and eventually into international notoriety, all while unwittingly shaping the way an internet-fueled culture turns outlaws into folk heroes.

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Transcript

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Aloha friends. I'm Yvette Gentile. And I'm her sister Rasha Pecorero. Together we host the weekly podcast so Supernatural. As we were raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, we love sharing vibrant culture and captivating folklore with our listeners. This month we traveled back home and embarked on a journey exploring some of the legends from our home that have stuck with us the most. Hawaii's night marchers and Madame Pele, the Goddess of Fire. We will be joined by Kanaka Maoli, native Hawaiian master storyteller Lopaka Kapanui, where we get to share the legend of Madame Pele and the supernatural stories of the night marchers with all of you. Listen now as we immerse ourselves in Hawaii's magical yet mysterious folklore. Wherever you get your podcasts.

Campsite Media.

[Josh Dean]

Hello.

[Jackson Holtz]

What is. What do you want me to say?

[State Farm Advertiser / Yvette Gentile / Rasha Pecorero / Plan B Advertiser]

Chameleon.

[Josh Dean]

Chameleon.

[Jackson Holtz]

Chameleon Weekly.

[Josh Dean]

Jackson Holtz was a Young Journalist in 2007 Living in the suburbs chasing scoops when an unusual piece of paper landed on his desk.

[Jackson Holtz]

I was the local crime reporter for the Everett Daily Herald. It's the newspaper record for Snohomish county, which is about a half hour north of Seattle. And I got a press release from the island county sheriff. And what was unusual about this press release is it kind of was an old fashioned wanted poster and the person who was wanted was a teenager, actually two teenagers. One of them was Colton Harris Moore and he was wanted for a series of burglaries on Camano Island.

[Josh Dean]

Camano is a beautiful place, a densely forested island in Puget Sound populated mostly by weekenders who buy vacation homes with wood fired hot tubs on its fir tree laden shores.

[Jackson Holtz]

They had released a mugshot, both boys, both Colton Harris Moore and his then accomplice, a guy named Hurley Davidson. Iron Wing named after the motorcycle and the two boys were suspected of breaking into vacation homes.

[Josh Dean]

Both were known to cops from various.

[Jackson Holtz]

Run ins and it was believed they were actually camping out. They were living in the woods.

[Josh Dean]

The Harley kid, he had a great name, but he fades from this story pretty quickly. Colton Harris Moore, he also Had a peculiar thing that the press really latched onto.

[Jackson Holtz]

His famous trait was that he was known to run barefoot off into the woods.

[Josh Dean]

These young men were hardly criminal masterminds. The area, again is very rural and long on wilderness. The entire island had, on a good day, two working sheriff's deputies. So it wasn't terribly hard for two teenagers to break into vacation homes and escape into the brush. But still, this spate of house invasions, robberies of rich homes by poor kids, one of whom never wore shoes, had something.

[Jackson Holtz]

This crime spree, it became a local media sensation. I covered it at the Herald. All the local TV stations from Seattle came up and covered it. This teenager running into the woods from police.

[Josh Dean]

One night, a guy spotted some lights on in a neighbor's house he knew was empty.

[Jackson Holtz]

He called the cops and so a sheriff's deputy responded and used his flashlight to make it seem like there were more cops than were there.

[Josh Dean]

As in the hole, we have the place surrounded.

[Jackson Holtz]

Kid Colton said he wanted to speak to his mom. She came down and got him to surrender. Colton was arrested and we thought that would be the end of Colton Harris Moore. But we were wrong.

[Josh Dean]

This teenager from the Pacific northwest would soon begin a crime spree for the ages. He would rob banks, loot stores, then get away in stolen cars, boats, even planes. Eventually kicking off an Internet international manhunt that set the interwebs on fire.

So yeah, the barefoot bandit had barely even begun.

This is Chameleon, the weekly and I'm Josh Dean.

After the break, one of the wildest serial robbery stories you'll ever hear. Starring the first folk hero of the social media age.

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[Josh Dean]

You're listening to Chameleon, the weekly.

Colton Harris Moore's Mom, Pam Kohler, was always struggling to make ends meet. And his dad, well, he was a drug user who took off when Colton was a toddler, leaving a young boy and his mom to fend for themselves in a ramshackle trailer on an island of luxury vacation homes.

[Jackson Holtz]

You know, he started off stealing for dinner. I mean, this was a kid who grew up in a really tough household, a chaotic household, often a violent household, where he wasn't sure if he was going to get dinner or not.

[Josh Dean]

Colton was an unusually tall boy with a love of snacks and animals and a close, if complicated, relationship with his mom. He also showed a knack for getting by, often exploiting the key vulnerability of vacation homes. They're empty a lot, and he realized.

[Jackson Holtz]

That it was pretty easy to break into them and that people stock their kitchens with, whether it's microwave popcorn or frozen dinners, that this was a way for him to sustain himself. But to have to resort to breaking into your neighbor's garages to steal frozen dinners, you know, that's just not how kids should grow up. And then he also began to have an appetite for electronics. He began to steal credit cards and identities.

[Josh Dean]

He would also steal computers and use those cards and the fake identities to order tools to further his criminal pursuits, like night vision goggles.

[Jackson Holtz]

And so he was becoming a little more sophisticated. He was known to use bear spray to deter arrest, and it was beginning to get quite serious.

[Josh Dean]

He was only 16, but at the time of his arrest, following that spree of robberies, Colton Harris Moore seemed to be growing into the criminal life. He just had a knack for it.

[Jackson Holtz]

He goes before a judge, he's convicted, he's sentenced to time and juvenile, and ultimately, he ended up at a halfway house for kids.

[Josh Dean]

This didn't exactly work out. One day, Colton gets into a fight with one of the counselors, and basically.

[Jackson Holtz]

He just opens a window at night and crawls out and escapes into the night.

[Josh Dean]

This was April 2008. For a year or so, Colton picked up where he left off, cultivating his local legend, Fursona. He broke into homes all over the islands, stealing food and electronics, even helping himself to a bath. On at least one occasion, he stole a few cars and started taking pictures of himself with the loot. One of those pictures went viral and ended up on the COVID of Jackson Holtz's book. And as always, Colton would just disappear into the woods unscathed. But he didn't really make waves until he found a way to take it to the next level.

[Jackson Holtz]

At this point, we still thought he was just this neighborhood ne' er do well. And this prolific teen cereal burglar and Otto theft guy, we didn't know that he had his sights set higher. And so, forgive me, the story really took off when the police first suspected that Colton was behind two airplane thefts.

[Josh Dean]

It started less than a year after his escape from the halfway house.

[Jackson Holtz]

Camano island, where he grew up, there's a navy base not too far as the crow flies. So he would have grown up seeing fighter jets flying up overhead, commercial aircraft flying overhead. And Colton develops this dream of aviation as a kid, and who knows, was that just by looking up at the sky, or was that because he was trying to imagine a better life for himself outside of the house?

[Josh Dean]

Either way, the 6 foot 5, 16 year old boy just gets into a plane one day, turns the key and takes off.

[Jackson Holtz]

You know, this is a guy with no formal flight training. To this day, I don't know exactly how Colton taught himself how to fly a small airplane, but there were lots of small airports around in the Pacific.

[Josh Dean]

Northwest, Small airports where hobbyist flyers kept their planes.

[Jackson Holtz]

And kind of like people do in the country, they put the keys up above the visor right when they're not using it. And Colton discovered this, that it wasn't too hard to find the keys for the airplane.

[Josh Dean]

That's how he stole his first plane in November of 2008. This was on Orcas island in the San Juans, a place he'd fled to by stolen boat after the heat on Cameo grew too intense. It was a single engine Cessna 182 that would later turn out to be owned by a famous Seattle area rock DJ named Bob Rivers.

[Jackson Holtz]

It appears that he knew how to take off. He had a harder time landing them, and he crashed those airplanes.

[Josh Dean]

In the case of that first Cessna, Colton managed to fly 300 miles until he crashed on the Yakima Indian reservation.

[Jackson Holtz]

And you know, it's remarkable that he survived, given that he ended up crashing five airplanes by the time it was.

[Josh Dean]

All over In June of 2009, Colton broke into a police car and stole a cell phone, a rifle, and some ammo. And then on September 11th of that year, he stole a second plane, this time from the San Juan island airport. He flew that Cessna back to Orcas and crash landed on an actual Runway, which was as close as he ever came to landing a plane properly.

[Jackson Holtz]

He then appears to have stolen a boat and made his way north from Orcas island to Point Roberts.

[Josh Dean]

Point Roberts is in far northern Washington on the Canadian border. And Colton crosses the border into British Columbia from there.

[Jackson Holtz]

And it's around this time that the Associated press gives him this moniker, the Barefoot Bandit. And so the story was beginning to gain national attention. He's the notorious Barefoot Bandit nickname, the barefoot Bandit.

[Josh Dean]

His mom, when reached by reporters, didn't exactly de escalate the hype. She claimed that she had been wanting to send him to flight school but now didn't have to. That she, quote, hoped to hell he stole those airplanes because it would make her proud. And that if you're gonna steal airplanes, steal twin engines, because that way if one engine fails, you'll still have another. Basically, the media couldn't get enough. And Colton kept giving. Not long after fleeing to Canada, he steals another plane. That's three if you're counting back across the border in Idaho and then comes.

[Jackson Holtz]

Back to western Washington and crashes in a clear cut near Granite Falls. So up in the foothills of the.

[Josh Dean]

Cascades, it seemed like Colton had been trying to get home, but the plane ran out of fuel and he ditched.

[Jackson Holtz]

And this was a really serious crash because the airbags were deployed. If the plane didn't have the airbags installed, he would have died. This is definitely a new story. Now there's helicopters that go chasing after him and he is accused of firing at a deputy. And you know, that'll get the police's attention real quick when you start putting them in harm's way like that.

[Josh Dean]

Prior to this point, he's mostly a nuisance, an increasingly troublesome nuisance, of course, a guy the local cops are very sick of chasing, but not someone they consider to be a violent guy until he shoots at them.

[Jackson Holtz]

And we know that at this point, the police start putting a lot of resources into trying to stop this guy. They brought in helicopters and have SWAT teams going after him. But this was Colton's thing. He knew how to outrun and evade. Getting arrested.

[Josh Dean]

He steals yet another plane, this time a Cirrus SR22 from the airport in Anacortes, a bedroom community for Seattle, and heads back again to Orcas island, where he crashes a single engine plane for the fourth time.

[Jackson Holtz]

Orcas island is a beautiful vacation resort area, and so East Sound is a little village that services the this community. He breaks into the supermarket and tries to open up an ATM machine, unsuccessfully.

[Josh Dean]

There's a video still of him carrying a crowbar and a hammer.

[Jackson Holtz]

Later, he breaks into the food co op there, where he infamously took chalk and drew bare footprints, a dozen or more of these bare footprints, and wrote, cya, see you later. And so really kind of reinforcing his ascension as a folk hero and, you know, sticking it to the man rubbing his nose at the police.

[Josh Dean]

Colton, by this point, is suspected in more than 100 robberies, including the theft of four airplanes and numerous boats and cars.

[Jackson Holtz]

We later found out that he was actually living at the little airport on Orcas island and had built kind of a nest up in one of the hangars. And he would have seen the cops come in and be looking for him and was eating junk food up in the rafters.

[Josh Dean]

Every new detail sparks more press. But it's not just the press anymore.

[Jackson Holtz]

Remember, this is 2009 ish, and there's this new thing called Facebook. We're so used to it. Like, Facebook now is what old people use, right? But in these days, it was a brand new thing. And a guy starts a Colton Harris Moore Facebook fan page. And this is really the first outlaw of the social media age. And it's novel. It's news in and of itself. There's now a Facebook page following Colton Harris Moore and his exploits.

[Josh Dean]

60,000 people join the group. A guy in Seattle starts selling t shirts with Colton's face on it and the words mama tried. There are even folk songs, plural.

[Jackson Holtz]

No more was left to turn down bed he rocked the pistol they call him the barefoot bundle this boy don't.

[Josh Dean]

Use no shoes they call him the barefoot.

[Jackson Holtz]

Bandit on a green bandana Some people were rooting for him, that kind of modern day Robin hood, even though he wasn't giving the money back. I mean, it really became an international phenomenon. I remember a television reporter from Brazil came to town and called me and said, hey, is his mother really going to shoot me if I walk up to her house? I told her, you can go see for yourself. She wasn't shot.

[Josh Dean]

But despite the increasingly brazen crimes, somehow the cops couldn't catch him. Here's the local sheriff, Mark Brown, stating the obvious to local reporters. I certainly would like to apprehend him. I think a lot of folks would. Press, police, even the locals are starting to increase pressure on this teen outlaw.

[Jackson Holtz]

It's about this time that there's a community meeting on Camano island, and it's to talk about what they're trying to do to apprehend them. By this time, there's a bounty hunter who's kind of a larger than life character in and of himself who says that he's going to pro bono join the effort to try to apprehend Colton.

[Josh Dean]

Colton seems to recognize his days are numbered. If he sticks close to home. It's time to bolt. But his escape from Kameno is extremely on brand.

[Jackson Holtz]

He flees in a boat to leave the islands and heads to the mainland, steals a car and begins to head south through western Washington. And this is where along the way, as he's fleeing law enforcement, he stops at a veterinary clinic.

[Josh Dean]

On May 30, 2010, police find a handwritten note in $100 at that small veterinary clinic 95 miles southwest of Seattle. Drove by, had some extra cash. Please use this money for the care of animals. Signed Colton Harris Moore, AKA the Barefoot Bandit. Camano Island, Washington.

[Jackson Holtz]

He had a soft spot for animals. His pet dog, Melanie, a beagle, was the love of his life. They were inseparable. So he stops at a vet clinic, leaves some money and says, hey, this is from the Barefoot Bandit. From there, heads to the Columbia river, steals a boat, crosses the Columbia river, and on the other side in Oregon. Now he steals a car, makes his way to a small airport, breaks into the airport, has some food, but isn't able to steal an airplane.

[Josh Dean]

Colton is now crossing state lines to commit crimes. The FBI puts a $10,000 reward on his head. And Jackson doesn't even need to leave his desk now to follow the story. It's coming to him.

[Jackson Holtz]

What starts to happen is that my phone starts ringing, not from readers, but from law enforcement who said, hey, I read your story about this guy. I think he's just been here. And this starts to happen in a breadcrumb trail that led from western Oregon to eastern Oregon and then into the country.

[Josh Dean]

South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Illinois. Colton stays ahead of the cops, but hits some speed bumps along the way.

[Jackson Holtz]

Tries to steal an airplane, isn't successful. Breaks into a house, is confronted by homeowners, I think it was in Oklahoma. Breaks into a lays potato chips truck and steals some snacks. And this is the pattern that starts to come together. He's going from one jurisdiction to the.

[Josh Dean]

Next until he reaches Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University.

[Jackson Holtz]

And it's a July 4th morning and we get word that Colton has stolen airplane.

[Josh Dean]

That's number five.

[Jackson Holtz]

We would later learn that he's actually flying from Bloomington, Indiana in a high end Cessna. And he flies all the way to the Bahamas.

[Josh Dean]

More than a thousand miles, crossing five states and a good chunk of ocean along the way.

[Jackson Holtz]

And once he gets to the Bahamas, he circles around and lands in a mangrove swamp.

[Josh Dean]

Crash is more like it. In a dense swamp near Grand Abaco.

[Jackson Holtz]

This is his fifth airplane crash. And again, it's like how he managed to survive five Crashes of small airplanes is pretty miraculous in and of itself.

[Josh Dean]

Somehow Colton swam, slash hiked out of that swamp, ignoring whatever injuries he may have suffered. And a string of robberies of local houses naturally followed.

[Jackson Holtz]

He's stealing to survive and now he's an international fugitive wanted by the FBI, wanted by the Bahamians.

[Josh Dean]

Now Colton is sort of boxed in. He's no longer in the wilderness. He's on a chain of very small islands with very few places to hide. He's also a 6 foot 5 white dude, so he stands out a bit.

[Jackson Holtz]

What ends up happening is that a worker at a resort sees him sneak down onto a dock and recognizes him and calls the authorities.

[Josh Dean]

This is six days after the crash.

[Jackson Holtz]

On December 10, and Colton tries to flee in a stolen powerboat.

[Josh Dean]

Bahamian cops commandeer a boat with four civilians on it and give chase. And here's how an ABC News report summed up the spree's outlandish and cinematic conclusion. Police fired on his boat, disabling one engine with a shotgun, the other with an Uzi. By 3:15 Sunday morning, he was taken.

[Jackson Holtz]

Off that bullet ridden boat and into custody.

[Josh Dean]

The next day, Colton was charged with illegal landing in the Bahamas and ordered deported immediately after either paying a fine of $300 or serving a three month sentence. He didn't have any money, so the US embassy gave him a temporary loan to cover the fine. And then U.S. marshals put him on a plane and flew Colton Harris Moore back to Washington state via Miami to face more serious charges.

[Jackson Holtz]

He reportedly had plans to get from the Bahamas to Cuba. His thinking in going to the Bahamas was where can I go beyond law enforcement reach and to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States. So he was thinking all that through, but he was wrong about the Bahamas.

[Josh Dean]

Wrong or he ran out of gas or got lost. Or this was a kid with no pilot training on just his fifth ever flight, having covered a thousand miles and somehow managed to crash into a tiny island in the ocean.

Back home, Colton's mom seemed relieved to be hearing about him at all.

[Jackson Holtz]

All I'm going to say is he's safe and I'm happy and I love him and I miss him.

Ultimately, Colton doesn't face a jury. Colton pleads in both state court and in federal court. He reaches a plea agreement and part of that plea agreement is the sale of his life rights. He can't profit a dime from telling the story of the barefoot bandit.

[Josh Dean]

20Th Century Fox buys the life rights and asks the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.

[Jackson Holtz]

To adapt and Dustin writes a screenplay that's sitting on some Hollywood producer's desk right now. Obviously the movie hasn't been made, but.

[Josh Dean]

That'S not the end of our story either. Colton Harris Moore has one final act of sorts of that's after the break.

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[Josh Dean]

Welcome back to Chameleon.

Superior Court Judge Vicki Churchill was firm but empathetic when sentencing Colton Harris Moore, saying this case is a tragedy in many ways, but it's a triumph of the human spirit in other ways. The judge described Colton's childhood as a, quote, mind numbing absence of hope and noted that the now 20 year old seemed to be genuinely remorseful for his crimes. He told the court that he planned to spend his time in prison studying in preparation for applying to college in order to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering. Colton also said that it was, quote, no stretch of the imagination to say that I'm lucky to be alive. And he served his time quietly at the Stafford Creek Correction center in Aberdeen, Washington. He wasn't really heard from at all until 2015. This was in the final year of his incarceration and he was fundraising.

[Jackson Holtz]

He's the notorious barefoot Bandit, the cocky teenager who left those signature chalk footprints at his crime scenes. Now his larger than life story just.

[Josh Dean]

Got a whole lot more bizarre.

[Jackson Holtz]

He tells our Megan Alexander he wants to have his dying mom frozen.

[State Farm Advertiser / Yvette Gentile / Rasha Pecorero / Plan B Advertiser]

And your mom is willing to do this?

[Colton Harris Moore]

Of course.

[Josh Dean]

Pam Kohler, Colton's mom was dying of metastatic lung cancer and he had an idea, a last ditch Hail Mary of an idea.

[Jackson Holtz]

He wanted to have her cyrogenically frozen. That's a fantasy of a young man.

[Josh Dean]

Grieving his mom cryogenically frozen. He means referring to a still unproven practice of deep freezing a person, or in the case of Ted Williams, a person's head, in hopes that they can be thawed and fixed in a future when whatever killed them is fixable. Some of the only times Colton has spoken publicly were during that period. Like here talking to Inside Edition.

[Colton Harris Moore]

We're not talking about a garage freezer here. It's a multi week process to bring somebody down to minus 196 degrees Celsius and they can remain at that temperature indefinitely for thousands of years.

[Josh Dean]

Colton started a GoFundMe but raised just over $2,000 of the 230,000 he thought it would cost to freeze his mom, then pivoted and pleaded for loans totaling $80,000 instead, that being the minimum the Arizona based cryogenics firm Alcor would accept in order to agree to freeze her. Unfortunately for Colton and Alcor and Pam, he just ran out of time. One person who didn't help the cause, Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks, who said this to the LA Times, since Mr. Harris Moore's crimes were theft and burglary, would be donors should take that into account.

Colton Harris Moore got out of prison in 2016 and was placed on probation for three years. He didn't pop up again until 2019 when he wrote a letter to the judge asking for relief from the final half year of his probation. Specifically, he was asking if his spotless post prison record was enough to allow the judge to free him of restrictions such as his ability to travel. This limitation, he said, was hampering his ability to earn money from public speaking, money that would allow him to finish paying off his restitution and to start a new life.

Colton gave very few interviews after his arrest, but around the time he filed that motion to have his probation ended early, he did call into a local radio show hosted by a DJ named Jason Rance.

[Colton Harris Moore]

So Colton Harris Moore has left the Barefoot Bandit moniker behind and he's been on the right path for months after his Release from a 6 and a half year jail term following a string of property crimes and somehow without any training, was able to steal and fly.

[Josh Dean]

Why, Rance asked, did Colton think he should do motivational speaking? What did he honestly have to offer beyond the wild stories of his crimes?

[Colton Harris Moore]

At the risk of sounding immodest, I think I have an exceptional ability to plan and execute a plan ultimately to accomplish an objective.

[Josh Dean]

Hard to argue with that one.

[Colton Harris Moore]

And I usually do so with extremely high stakes. Often when my life is on the line and it comes down to what I do or do not do intentionally. And I think that a lot of people can relate to that. I know that one thing that bothers you is that you are trying to fight against this notion that you might forever be known as the Barefoot Bandit.

[Josh Dean]

The nickname that had made Colton Harris Moore a global celebrity was a term he had come to hate.

[Colton Harris Moore]

People want to keep it alive. People want to keep it going. And that's really contrasted with every effort of mine and every intention of mine to move on from that.

[Josh Dean]

He'd had a similar message when calling into Seattle's popular Ron and Don radio show.

[Colton Harris Moore]

I don't go by the name Barefoot Bandit. My name's Colton Harrismore, and I think that the past is the past. That's the most important message I have. You make mistakes, you live, you learn, and you move on. And ironically enough, the owner of one of the airplanes I flew is a good friend of mine, a dear friend. And the first thing he said to me is, you can't drive a car down the highway by looking in the rearview mirror.

[Josh Dean]

Jackson Holt says that the most interesting thing about this story all these years later isn't so much Colton Harris spree of outlandish crimes.

[Jackson Holtz]

By covering this story, I witnessed, you know, the creation of an American outlaw folk hero. And he was the first outlaw of the social media age. He gained notoriety in part because people were coming together in the first time ever on something called Facebook. And, you know, this guy, as much as I believe that he had a really tough go of things, he certainly had personality, too. And, you know, it was kind of funny that he drew those chalk prints. Colton had a kind of a sense of humor. His mom had a sense of humor. And in hindsight, this is a sad story about a kid that did really dangerous things, and the fact that he didn't kill himself, that he didn't kill anybody else, and the process of stealing five airplanes and crashing all five is miraculous.

[Josh Dean]

Jackson ultimately wrote his book on the case, Fly, Colton, Fly, using secondary sources, court records, and of course, his own reporting. But he was never able to actually speak with Colton. Colton ignored all of his interview requests over the years. But there was one brief interaction.

[Jackson Holtz]

I mean, I reached him in a way I used to have on my social media. I called myself a Barefoot Bandit Ologist. He didn't like that.

And he let me know via Twitter that he didn't like that. And so I respected his wishes. I took that off.

[Josh Dean]

Nobody wants to be defined by some crazy shit they did as a teenager, but sometimes it's pretty hard to outrun your legacy. Many nicknames, possibly even most of them, are born early, tossed off in some youthful moment with no thought that they might stick so it stands to reason if you make the evening news going on a barefoot crime spree in which you steal and crash five airplanes, well, you've kind of made your bed. Once a barefoot bandit, always a barefoot bandit, I'm afraid.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audio Chuck. It's written and hosted by me, Josh Dean and produced by Joe Barrett. Our associate producer is Emma Siminoff. Sound design and mix by Mark McAdam and Tiffany Dimmack. Theme music by Ewin Laitrimuin and Mark McAdam. Our production manager is Ashley Warren. Campside's executive producers are Vanessa Grigoriadis, Matt Sher and me, Josh Dean. And finally, if I can ask a few favors before sending you on your way today, please rate, follow and review Chameleon on your favorite podcast platforms to help spread the word. I know everyone says this, but it's true. Ratings and reviews really do help, and if you have any feedback, tips or story ideas, you can email [e-mail] or leave us a message at a special number We've set up, 201-743-8368. Dial one from outside North America. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

[Jackson Holtz]

I think Chuck would approve.

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