Barefoot Bandit comes of age on the run

[Left_Nut]

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AD&Date=20100128&Category=FOREIGN&ArtNo=701279887&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&MaxW=300

Colton Harris-Moore took this self-portrait in June 2008 using a stolen camera. He is achieving folk hero status in the US and Canada after a string of burglaries and daredevil escapes from the law.

He has rustled small planes, speedboats and luxury cars, robbed island hideaways and survived for weeks in the rugged wilderness of the Pacific North-west. He has got 17,000 followers on Facebook, and hundreds more US police, Canadian Mounties and FBI agents trying to track him down in the real world.

But 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore has given them the slip for more than 20 months now – often on foot, and on many occasions without any shoes on. By all accounts he is fleet-footed and razor sharp. Whether he is a rebel or a reprobate seems to depend on your point of view.

In November 2008, for example, he is known to have slipped into a parked Cessna on Orcas Island, piloting the tiny plane over the Puget Sound before crash landing on an Indian reservation on the mainland more than 600km to the south-east and walking away from the crumpled wreck miraculously unharmed. The stunt was all the more impressive considering that the gangly teenager not only had no pilot training when he took to the skies that day, he had never even been on a plane before.

There is no question he had a rough childhood, with a mother who battled alcoholism, a father who walked out on him and a stepfather addicted to heroin. Police say he committed his first robbery at age 10.

On the one hand, the tale of Colton Harris-Moore shows how easily a smart, seemingly well-intentioned kid can slip through the cracks if his parents, his teachers and the social safety net all fail him. But the derring-do of the Barefoot Bandit has nonetheless captured the imaginations of thousands – many of whom think he can be reformed.

“I’ve had people contact me asking me to get word that they’d be willing to offer him a job and give him a chance when this is all over,” Mr Friel said. “That, to me, would be a happy ending.”

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100128/FOREIGN/701279887/1002

 

[Killswitch]

He's gonna come of age when some inmate butt fucks him every day for the next fifty years.

 

[badbabysitter]

he'll be known as the " bareback bandit" from now on

 

[Killswitch]

he'll be known as the " bareback bandit" from now on

ahahaha

 

[ivantheterrible]

gotta say he had balls.

 

[badbabysitter]

the sad thing is if this kid had been black..you woulda seen the leftnut/tyronne biggs crowd tsk-tsking



and I like the bit about how this " is just a good kid that slipped through the cracks" and the " oh he had such a rough childhood"..change the pigment of his skin and the thread poster would have been having coniptions about him

 

[RoryN]

In that photo they keep using of him, he has a "I know everything and can do anything" expression on his face. It could be an internet meme for a smug look.

I'd love a follow-up photo of him, crying.

 

[jomar]

He's gonna get diagnosed with narcissistic/antisocial personality disorder.

 

[Cade Is Here]

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AD&Date=20100128&Category=FOREIGN&ArtNo=701279887&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&MaxW=300

Colton Harris-Moore took this self-portrait in June 2008 using a stolen camera. He is achieving folk hero status in the US and Canada after a string of burglaries and daredevil escapes from the law.









http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100128/FOREIGN/701279887/1002

Reminds me of the movie 'Catch me if you can'