Barefoot Bandit to be Released From Prison

Seattle, Washington- 25-year old Colton Harris-Moore, known to most of the world as “The Barefoot Bandit” is scheduled to be officially released from the Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Aberdeen  on January 17, 2017, according to the Washington State Department of Corrections.  He will be moved to a halfway house as early as next week to reintegrate back to society.

The Seattle Times reports that Harris-Moore will be taking a part-time job  doing clerical work and answering phones at the Office of the High Profile  Attorney who defended him, John Henry Browne.   Mr. Browne’s clients have included other high profile cases, such as that of Serial Killer Ted Bundy.  Browne’s Office  took on Harris-Moore’s defense for $1.00 which was paid by Harris-Moore’s mother, Pamela Kohler, of Camano Island. Mrs. Kohler died earlier this year of Cancer.

Mr. Browne told  Mike Carter with the Seattle times that Harris-Moore will be looking for full-time work and will eventually be going to school.

Harris-Moore escaped from a half way house in 2008 where he was serving time for Burglary. Over the next two years, he evaded capture and victimized multiple people throughout Camano and Orcas Island as well as many other places.  Some of his crimes included burglaries and thefts of high end items such as boats and small airplanes.  He stole an assault rifle from a patrol car, transported stolen firearms across state lines and took food, cash and electronics from homes during his burglaries. He became known as the barefoot bandit after leaving a “bare footprint” at the scene of his crimes as a signature. He became “internet famous” and had up to 50,000 followers at one time occasionally leaving a post online written on a stolen laptop.

During his crime spree he stole a total of three small planes with no flight training and he crash landed all three of them.  The last plane he stole was from Indiana and he flew it to the Bahamas, where he crash landed it.  He  was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to prison for six and a half years after leading authorities in the Bahamas  on a boat chase before being captured.

20th Century Fox paid more than $1 million dollars to Colton Harris-Moore’s court-ordered restitution to victims in exchange for the rights to his story.  They wrote a check to the U.S. Marshal’s Office in November of 2015, which was mainly used to replace the three planes and the boat he stolen in the Bahamas.  Colton-Harris Moore did not receive any money from the movie deal.

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