INSIDE EDITION has the story of an 18-year-old who's the star of his own real-life Catch Me If You Can drama. Colton Harris-Moore is on a one-man crime spree plaguing the Pacific Northwest.
Cops say 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore is on a one-man crime spree in the Pacific Northwest. They say he broke into more than 50 homes and businesses and even stole three airplanes, and he doesn't even have a pilot's license. He crash-landed them all before vanishing into the woods.
Colton challenges the cops to try and capture him, almost like a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio's Catch Me If You Can. But unlike DiCaprio's charming character, cops say this thief is armed and dangerous. The manhunt is centered on the islands off the coast of Washington.
INSIDE EDITION reporter Jim Moret drove around Camano Island checking out all the places where Colton has been spotted. Camano Island isn't very big but it's big enough for Colton to elude authorities.
Camano Island is 40 square miles and, except for a small village, is mostly wilderness. Many people think that Colton is now on the run living in the wild. He leaves clues wherever he's been, taunting authorities to find him. One clue Colton left for the police was a photo he snapped of himself using a stolen camera.
Cops say Colton hit Belinda Landon's restaurant twice. He broke in through a door and cracked her safe containing $10,000.
INSIDE EDITION asked Landon if she worried Colton would come back.
“Oh I know he is,” she said.
To add insult to injury, Landon says Colton used her computer to order how -to videos to learn to fly and even had them delivered to her restaurant.
Colton's mother lives in a trailer at the end of a dirt road where there are no trespassing signs along it. One says, “Notice: If you go past this sign you will be shot.”
Colton's mother drove right past INSIDE EDITION’s news crew and refused to talk. She has said her son thinks he's James Bond, and that cocky attitude has made him a folk hero. A fan club sells T-shirts with his face and the line “mama tried” on them.
But Seattle radio talk show host Bob Rivers finds it difficult to believe anyone could idolize that type of thug.
”Colton Harris-Moore does not have fans, he just has people he hasn't robbed yet,” said Rivers.
Rivers is one of Colton's alleged victims. He owned one of the three planes Colton allegedly stole to fly over the islands, casing the homes he intended to break into.
It's a bizarre series of crimes and the many victims say they hope he will soon be brought to justice dead or alive.
