In the annals of criminal history, few stories are as captivating and unconventional as that of Colton Harris Moore, famously known as “The Barefoot Bandit.” This young outlaw’s escapades captured the imagination of people worldwide and left a trail of disbelief and fascination in his wake. Colton Harris Moore: A Desperate Descent into Crime Colton Harris Moore was born in … Read More
The Barefoot Bandit – A Teen Criminal on the Run
Episode Transcription
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Speaker 1 Hey man watsapp Have you ever heard of the Barefoot bandit? Unknown Speaker The barefoot bandit? Yeah. Unknown Speaker Yes, Unknown Speaker really? What about Colton Harris more? Speaker 2 No, we see the Barefoot bandit. Colton Harris more dads a different, different person. Just go ahead and go on to the next. Next topic. The barefoot Speaker 1 barefoot bandit. This is one I think you're gonna like spoiler alert. There's pilots stuff in here so you can brag about how you're kind of a pilot almost. I wouldn't, Speaker 2 I wouldn't do that. I'm just prepping you for pilot stuff in here. That's why you're not one of us. Just because you say something. Like there's pilot stuff in here. Speaker 1 Sorry. There's aeronautical stuff in here. Does that make it? Does that make me sound official? No. Sorry. Let me think. There's Delta stuff in here and Speaker 1 I do the same thing. I saw a cup of water. And I put a live rat and you didn't even remove? Speaker 2 You're out of breath. Fake sprinting. They can't return my letters, but they sure can't find this guy. I'm available for it. You're not gonna find. We didn't expect that outcome from the jury. The jury is a bunch of monsters things I learned last night Speaker 1 okay, so golden hairs more. Yeah. Otherwise known as the Barefoot bandit. He was born in 1991 in Mount Vernon, Washington, okay. He was a kid who grew up in a pretty rough situation. His mother was an alcoholic. His dad wasn't around. He lived in a trailer park. And he was barefoot. No. No, okay. No, but there was a show could Unknown Speaker give shoes. Speaker 1 Shoes and wasn't a it wasn't a barefoot like, like what you think when you hear barefoot? It was like a, like a he lost his feet. And they gave him bare feet to replace the Oh, and they said ba they're like, they're like this is a veterinarian's clinic. So we don't have any human feed on hey, I guess Speaker 2 that would be a way to get away with some stuff. So if you want them you like cut your ankles, right? We were robbed by a bear. Put some bear on their knees just bad days. And so you went necessita feet. Unknown Speaker Okay, so. Speaker 2 Okay. Anyway, barefoot, barefoot. 9091 is born on the ground bringing Speaker 1 up being to make matters worse than us know. He's a he's he's what you call a not popular kid. And he gets bullied. Growing up right? In Unknown Speaker early what he's called those TJ, who's TJ? CJ, every loser. Every loser I've ever known, we call TJ. Speaker 1 So, in early high school, he befriends another one of kind of outcasts in his high school. Okay, who coincidentally just got out of juvie for you know, crime and theft, like, minor assess that being different not to be confused with thrifting. Speaker 2 How long have we got to do some episodes on the juvenile system? Because I don't understand how that works. Speaker 1 Like, thank God go to jail. Yeah, yeah. And then like Speaker 2 kids, playground and stuff. Like what is kitchen is Unknown Speaker a playground of an adult jail. Sure, they caught the yard. Yes, same thing. Unknown Speaker Okay. Do you learn on lingo in juvie. Speaker 1 I mean, depends on who you're in juvie with, I guess, like what kind of juvie, right? Like, if you're in like a juvie juvie, then yeah, but if you're in like a juvie, really Unknown Speaker juvie light, yeah, okay. Speaker 1 To be light. So, it this this kid gets out of juvie for theft, and he meets Colton, and they become friends because neither of them kind of fit in with anyone. Sure. And this kid realizes that Colton is missing a lot of like, bare necessities. And he tells him like, I have all the necessities I need, like in Colton notices that this kid's got a brand new iPod. Great sneaker, like he's got he's got everything as a teenage boy and nearly 3000s wants. He's got tickets to simple plan. Like he's got everything going on. stuff and but this this kid shouldn't have this like, you know he shouldn't afford it. And so call him ask something he's like he's so used. That's how I feel Speaker 2 when I was watching all our friends go to Taylor Swift. I was like, Hey, you're too poor for that. Speaker 1 In high school, you see someone do that. And you think some sketchy happening when you're an adult and you see that you think you got a credit card, and you're irresponsible. Unknown Speaker Oh, Speaker 2 you're 27 and your parents don't pay for a lot of stuff. That's Speaker 1 for you. Fortune Magazine did a survey. Magazine. Yeah. Different different. Fortune Magazine. Fortune Magazine did a poll of Gen Z years and millennials. And they asked them on a scale of like one to five. How much how dependent? Are you? On your parents? financially? Yeah. And 77% For at least 77% was at least somewhat dependent upon their parents financially. Gen Unknown Speaker Z and Millennial Gen Z Speaker 1 and Millennial which Gen Z like, I mean, a lot of them are probably like, Gen Z, you could still be like 17 and still be in Gen Z. Okay. So that. I feel like that's skews it, but a lot of millennials like Yeah. Speaker 2 I mean, we had a lot of friends in LA, who will be like, I don't even here in Kansas City will be like, how do you afford to do all this stuff? And then we find out their parents are paying their rent? Unknown Speaker Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. It makes a lot easier. Unknown Speaker I wish my parents love me. All my parents do is support me on Patreon. Unknown Speaker Be like Gerald's mom Speaker 2 on Patreon and support us on Patreon. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, number one, they got those exclusive merch that you get if you're a Patreon supporter for a certain amount of time. And it's like a mug with my face on it. It's like Jeremiah is my best friend. And it got sent to my dad in the month of June. And he just thought it was his Father's Day gift. He's like I love my Father's Day gift. I have the heart to be like, Unknown Speaker actually, you for that. You. Unknown Speaker That's great. Well, you know what? You're welcome, dad. Unknown Speaker And now every year you give them the same Unknown Speaker for fathers. Yeah. It's got a lot of them. Speaker 1 What if we did that? Well, if we use that are paid with the same gift every year, in June. Unknown Speaker Happy Father's Day, Happy Father's Day. Speaker 1 All right. Millennials are poor. And back to Thomas. Yeah, Colton here. So he's so his friend says a lot of stuff he can't afford. Yes. And his friend tells him like, Hey, I recognize that you don't have a lot of your bare necessities. Why don't you just steal them, like just steal the stuff that you need. And so he starts showing him the ropes on theft, right. And so his friend's favorite version of theft is like home burglary, especially in the town. Speaker 2 Which is a pretty advanced form of theft. You know, yet most people start with a casual gas station pack of gum, you know, but this guy is like, my favorite is breaking into vulnerable people's homes. Unknown Speaker My favorite is big robbery. Let me show you how it's easy to put Unknown Speaker these pantyhose over your face. Let's get in there. Speaker 1 So the town that they lived in, in Washington was an island town off the coast of Washington. And it was like a vacation hotspot. Yeah. And so there's a lot of homes there, that people didn't live in full time. And it was pretty easy to spot. The homes that weren't not lived in homes. They were just be there once a year homes, you know, I'm saying yeah, and so they got really good. Speaker 2 Because when they left, they were like, we'll see you next year. They put a sign on the door that said I'd say that's my wife, now leaving for like a trip and she yells to the cats. Alright, we'll Unknown Speaker see you next Sunday. Then I was like, have you What are you doing? Have you heard of Robert trying to get his home alone? Unknown Speaker And then your packages got stolen? And that same trip? Speaker 2 I'm not trying to? I'm not trying to blame anybody for that. Okay. Don't Don't try to pit me against my wife. How dare you try to drive a wedge between my mayor looking for a new house day or you opportunity? A new podcast. Either we're gonna start a whole podcast on this porch pirate. Speaker 1 So they start, they start breaking into these homes and Colin's new friend is is telling him like, here's some here's some things you need to know. Like, obviously, you don't turn the lights on. Because that's cure giveaway forever. All the neighbors, all the neighbors know no one lives in that house. Sure, unless they're there for the vacation. And so if the lights are on, that's a problem. So never turn the lights on. And other than that, there's not really there's not really a rule. The rule is It's theft. It's your brain a lot. Yeah, not a lot of laws here. Don't open the fridge. Yeah, well, actually that's one of the best rules you can eat whatever you want. Um But it's probably gone bad if they've left it if it's in the freezer though. Yeah so it's a lot of frozen food like you're you're cooking up some frozen food or maybe stuff in the doesn't go bad like Chips Ahoy boxes you Speaker 2 know if you've got a bunch of stuff in our freezer where you're supposed to do is you're supposed to put a little cup filled with water and let it freeze yeah and then you put like a coin on top of the frozen water in the freezer with all your stuff if you're leaving for like months yeah, yeah. And then when you come back that way you can tell if you're if the power has gone out or whatever, Unknown Speaker based on where the coin is in the cup. Speaker 2 It should be at the top still. Yeah if it's if it's all stayed frozen Yeah, but it's in the ice and that means your freezer at one point stopped and now all that stuff is Speaker 1 bad. That's a much better method than what I do. What is what you do you just go for it. Well, no, I do the same thing. I felt a cup of water and I put a live rat in it. And when I get home if the rats still there he then then he froze and I can just thaw him out kind of like a Kyra genic sleep and let him go on his way. But if Unknown Speaker I go thank you for your service power went Speaker 1 out then he's probably used the escape so usually chooses escapes. He has his way through the fridge Unknown Speaker and then I find him in the backyard dead because he's got Freon poisoning your way is a lot easier because it's just a quarter it's a lot easier to freeze a quarter than the life right like Speaker 2 you see him the same every time but he's also died Freon poisoning eggs around Unknown Speaker eat kind of like at this point. I think he likes to Speaker 2 brush up with a freeze on Friday. Sorry, I tried to give you a little fun life hack factoid thing there and Unknown Speaker speaking of rats, we speak Speaker 2 someone in this building speaking ARATS I said something the slack messages that got tweeted and I like tight lips around here Unknown Speaker my rats have tight lips because they're frozen in my freezer. Speaking of rats Unknown Speaker allegedly our Chuckie Cheese has finally Speaker 1 allegedly speak speaking of alleged rats, okay. It could be rats who knows I told you that we got the ring. We got we went for the full ring home security system. Oh yes. Yeah, the full home security systems that are the wires cut. Well what part of what we did was we put motion sensors in the garage so last night 2:37am Aren't the alarm goes off. Because now the full alarm like oh, yeah, you're our motion sensor was tripped in the garage. know a little more you're, you're rolling. And so I wake up 230 In the morning, do 30 days to 37 days in confused hearing this alarm that was quieter than I expected it to be honestly, this is the first time it's gone off. Quite a way quieter than I expected. Turn it off. Go down to the garage to see if I can figure out what happened. Unknown Speaker Did you bring anything with you? No, I Speaker 1 was fistfight I'm a fistfight kind of guy. Oh, yeah. Okay, Speaker 2 yeah, well, so Bri went down first got a breeze a protector of your home here's the thing Speaker 1 here's the thing you need to understand I sleep in full bulletproof armor Speaker 2 so we you know I make our bed walked out of there it is Unknown Speaker but it's the ropes Speaker 1 at our basement, we have a raised red so our basement is where the garage is. Yeah, so I get to the stairs of this bed Speaker 2 got to know how to do the stairs. Yeah. So you get down Speaker 1 there right downstairs and I get into the basement and rod. Yeah, cuz cuz that's my strategy. Unknown Speaker They play it out. Tell me every time it's Speaker 1 been a couple times where like we've thought someone was breaking in the mill the night. Unknown Speaker I've seen your house dude. Yeah. Speaker 1 Well, I told you what happened last time this happened. There was a bath. I overfilled one of our closets and the rack just exploded at the wall. And like it was loud. Yeah, and I woke up and just freaking dead spread out into and that's what happens is like, whenever there's a moment like this, like I don't I don't think and I don't think I should get something like I just run to what I think the problem is and I'm like, I'm gonna get there fast enough that they're not gonna be ready for me. I'm just gonna play it. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna die. Anyways. I get down to the basement into the garage. And there's nothing in there. And so now I'm trying to, I'm still, Unknown Speaker except for that girl behind you. Speaker 1 Well, that's the thing I love. I'm a little spooked now, because everything the garage doors were shut. All the windows were sealed the door into the garage. Oh, yes. Was there still in your house and there ever was, there was nothing in the garage. I checked everything in the garage. There's nothing in the garage. They're off. They also took off. When no, you couldn't, there's nothing else opened. It was just the motion sensor in the garage. And so I was looking for mice. That's why I thought it made me think of rats. I was like, maybe it was a mouse or another bat. Or an entity. I told Billy I was like, I was like, we might have a ghost. She's like, don't say that. All right. So we're putting a camera in the basement with night vision and thermal. See if we can catch the ghost. Because we used to have we used to Unknown Speaker have night vision now. That's not a special thing. Speaker 1 Yeah, but thermal. Thermal. Yeah, well, Unknown Speaker like the heat. Yeah, the Unknown Speaker heat sensor. Yeah. Okay, cuz because we used to have we used Unknown Speaker to otter rats. Speaker 1 There's rats read body temperature. degrees. That's why it takes too long for the freeze. Don't touch a rat. If you see a rat don't Unknown Speaker burn your skin and sizzle it. Speaker 1 I think we should make a term for it instead of cool like we should. Like so that's really cool. It says oh, wait, that's just cool. Because the hotter it goes in temperature. Unknown Speaker Man, that's hot. Unknown Speaker Yeah, I was full circle for you Speaker 1 know, but we used to have motions. We used that motion sensor that's in a garage and they would just turn on all the time. Like I'd be out in the backyard. And like we've got a window in the backyard. That garage would turn on the garage I would turn on and I would go down there and there would be nothing in there. I don't know what it is. I think we have an entity. Yeah, you have a ghost stuck in your garage. Yeah. And you say bye to someone in the basement every time you leave my house. Yeah, cuz she's down Unknown Speaker there. She's stuck in your garage. So they are just breaking into homes like what are they doing? Speaker 1 Yeah, so yeah, they're breaking into homes however they can get it Walston Unknown Speaker glass and Speaker 2 freeze in rat race dude. Yes, bro. Speaker 1 Our entire build and they're all cups rod large cups. Very large Solo cups. They're like bucket size Solo cups, and there's just a frozen rat but here's the craziest part Unknown Speaker was you describe the Barefoot the ice is only halfway down so I think my freezer is no good. Unknown Speaker It's actually a blessing. Rolls are not good anymore. So Unknown Speaker they're breaking Unknown Speaker bad they're breaking into Speaker 1 people's homes learning the ropes it's kind of a thrill thing for them for a little bit they're hanging out they're doing their thing and then he learns Oh like I can't I'm not getting my knees he Speaker 2 breaks into a house and use your your freakin sprinting he's like oh, I wasn't ready for two Speaker 1 got my gun but he's too fat for me. yourself Speaker 1 by the juvie for sure racks I get there before the the little echo can even do it saw the red lights and stuff. I'm just Unknown Speaker doo doo doo doo doo doo doo denser Unknown Speaker full body armor I'm trying to get my Speaker 3 Hey, thanks for checking out this episode of things on last night. If you like our show, and you want more of it, we have plenty of other episodes. One that I enjoyed was Jose Conseco, you know the baseball player from like the 90s and stuff, but also it's kind of an alien episode. Spoiler alert, so go check that out. Thanks for being here. Thanks. For listening thanks for watching and now back to this episode Speaker 1 so he started doing this with his friend, the whatever they're doing their thing. And he realized his basic needs aren't getting met at heart aren't know like he doesn't have one of us live in one of these close in. So that's what he says. He says you don't want like I've got a solution. I used to live in one of these houses and so he doesn't live in the house. What he's doing is he's going he's breaking in for a couple of days eating a bunch of food, stealing whatever he needs. Yeah, sometimes ordering stuff on Amazon with their cards or cards. And then going out to the woods I'm out of breath from that spring Speaker 2 you didn't even move you're out of breath from fake sprinting. You're you pumped your arms as if you were sprinting and you're very intense fakes was it was Did you see that? I see that. Do it do and see how on earth you get Oh, hold on. Yeah, check that heart rate we get my indoor rocks I can track it I gotta get credit for this you feel Unknown Speaker I'm gonna Oh, no staircase Unknown Speaker dude, I can do this for hours man. Speaker 1 I do it the rest the episode shoot. So cold realize this is necessities aren't getting met and so right starts breaking in these houses getting food getting closed, and then a little bit of extra stuff on the side. And what he does is he only spends a couple of days in there. And then he leaves the house and he goes to a tent he set up in the woods. Why? And he lives in that tent. Because he thinks it's easier to hide there than hide in the houses. He's probably Unknown Speaker it's a 160 heart rate, I guess. Yeah, that's fine. Speaker 1 See, it gets it going. And I was also laughing you know? And it's hot in here. It smells like dog food. Not gonna explain why. Speaker 2 smell like dog food. That is true. Unknown Speaker Not gonna tell you why Unknown Speaker that is true. Okay, so so he's living in a tent living in Unknown Speaker this tent. Oh, wow. Okay. And so this goes on Unknown Speaker until his next Airbnb experience. Yeah, Unknown Speaker until he needs something until they need some more food or Speaker 2 is air breaking in or is air b&b at Airbnb? Speaker 4 Yeah. So Speaker 2 he's living in a tent back behind all these houses, Speaker 1 or you know, in the woods, so sometimes it just depends on the neighborhood he picked, you know, he's right behind behind. But sometimes when word gets out in the community that someone's breaking into a lot of houses and stealing a lot of materials and stuff. And so people are kind of on edge like looking out. And so the police don't use this. This is 2000 like five 2006 to Unknown Speaker two years. Cameras and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I Speaker 1 mean, if you're really rich you probably have a camera security. This is ADTs heyday you know yeah, this is not this is pretty ring doorbells. Speaker 2 It's pretty crazy, bro. The ADT commercials were like, the numbers would like go like the whole house. You know, that was a cool commercial that it was like if they break in, it's going to call ATT and ATT is going to call 911. Yeah, yeah. And by the time that all happens, you're dead. Unknown Speaker You're super dead. We had ADT going up. Speaker 2 Did you know that makes sense? That tracks fully, actually. Yeah, it changed me. We had OnStar the button in the part of the car? Yeah, yeah. And I press that a couple times on accident. Oh, no, not on. No. He's Yeah. Finally do it. We just call 911 I love to sit there for 45 seconds. What are you doing? Speaker 1 Sorry, I forgot his line. Um, so. So he's getting into it. And it Unknown Speaker reports are people are starting to keep an eye out. Speaker 1 The police are trying are really trying to track him down. One day they end up he breaks Speaker 2 into one house. There's a 12 year old boy he's met his match. Right? Because he's authorized to walk up the stairs, trips and the marbles on them. Speaker 1 He breaks into home and a neighbor. Here's here's the here's the big problem with Colton. He didn't listen to his friend. His friend said there's one one rule and burglar He is keep the lights off. He would turn the lights on and chill and hang out. Make Chicken nuggets for the TV on. Yeah, watch TV ordered stuff on the internet stay for a couple of days until it showed up. You know Speaker 2 2006 You know, Dane cooks at his peak, isn't he? Actually yeah. So he's like, Oh, don't watch my boy, Dane. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 And so when he's, he's one of these houses. And a neighbor sees the lights on and calls the police and says, Hey, that it's the lights are on at this house that's supposed to not have anyone in it for like six more months. The police come and he hears the comment or whatever he gets out of the house before they find him. But they're able to kind of follow his trail back to his tent. Yeah, I Unknown Speaker mean, he's got bare feet. Speaker 1 I can hear the sound of a bear walking. And so they they chase him back to this tent. And he's not there. But but they find his tent and the job is full to the brim of all these stolen, I can't Unknown Speaker even replicate that sound. Unknown Speaker full, full, Speaker 1 full to the brim with all these stolen goods that have been reported stolen for like two years. Speaker 2 How's it carrying this stuff around? At that point? Why have you got to get a second tent? You're gonna have a storage tent? Speaker 1 I think so. I think that was a storage tent. Because Raj tent. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's he's building all these expansions on his tent and fire Unknown Speaker adding this weekend. Speaker 1 And so they begin to build their case against him. And a couple of months later, they end up tracking him down and arresting him. Okay, so he goes to juvie. He's now 16 years old. And he gets sentenced to three years and juvenile detention for all the string of burglaries that are committed. He's in there for a year, and he turns his life around. He starts studying doing really good job in school, he picks up aviation, but like, they don't let you fly. But he starts reading all the manuals and stuff, all the learning that you do before you actually fly. He started doing that, but for not like, no one's like, Hey, we're gonna give you a pilot license. Yeah, he's just doing it. You know. Unknown Speaker He's like, it's gonna be fun to pretend, Speaker 1 kind of actually. But he and he's got a great attitude. He's not getting any fights. He's listening, obey, you know. And so after a year, they say, hey, we'll transition you out of this maximum security juvenile detention center into a low security group home. And this is a just a home in a neighborhood that has a bunch of juvenile detainees living in it on house arrest. And there's no adult supervision. Well, there's adults show up and check on him every once in a while. Unknown Speaker Oh, wait, no, no, there's an adult who lives there. Yeah, there's. Speaker 1 So he's staying there. Sure. And he's there for like a month before he breaks out. And so they're like, Oh, that was a miss. Oh, dang it. And so where it gets out that Colton is back out on the loose because everyone's like, Oh, this guy steals all of our stuff in our vacation homes. Yeah. And so the town is booked, the town is on, on edge, he breaks into one home, and he has a very close encounter with the law. But he gets away. And so he decides he's like, he's like, I gotta get out of here. He's like, you see if I'm gonna be able to do this. I gotta do this, you know? Unknown Speaker Like a two different town or what? Yeah. Speaker 1 And so luckily, he's been reading books on flying. And before he got arrested, he had stolen a computer that had Microsoft license. So he's been flying in that flight simulator a lot. Okay, is that current, like, facing it? This is all flight simulator. Yeah. But it's like, it's like, I think I know my way around a Cessna 152. Okay, so he finds the local. Unknown Speaker Are you suggesting the current flight simulator? Unknown Speaker Well, I'm saying, Here's what I'm suggesting. Speaker 2 Are you suggesting that you know, not suggesting Speaker 1 what I'm saying? I know my way around if if you were going to have tried to steal an airplane with no flight experience? Yeah. Through practicing and current flight simulators, probably a little bit better than practicing an old flight simulator. Sure. That's Dom's. That's all you're saying. That's all I'm saying. All I'm saying. Yeah, flip practices in all flight simulators. Like saying I flew in GTA. And so now I know how to do true. Practicing a new flight simulator is like saying, I flew in GTA. So now I know what to do. But I at least know some of the words. That's that's the point. Sure. So he, he starts hanging out around the he sets up a tent at the edge of the runway, and he just starts watching the patterns in the airport. He doesn't actually set up a tent. I don't want to Okay, that's the truth. But he does hang out around the airport, just kind of watching what's going on in there. And so you can figure out patterns figure out who, who's who and what they do, you know, late one night, he jumps the fence in this little private airport, and he goes and he finds his target planet. Cessna 152. Speaker 2 And why is it to a bar in Manhattan? Right on the road, so I made it here for Washington. 15 minutes. You guys didn't believe me put my name on the wall. I told Speaker 1 you I could do it. I told you I could do by the way. Also give me some really spicy wings all the time. All right now do all right now. So he goes with his plane, sure enough, the owner left it unlocked and just left the keys on the seat. They do that. And so he pops in, starts it up, goes through the pre flight checklist because he read the book. He knows Unknown Speaker what's remarkably easy to steal planes to be honest. Speaker 1 And he's off, manages to take off and is airborne and he's feeling really good about it. Right. Makes it to Yakima. Correct. Then while he's flying over Yakima, he realizes he forgot one very important part of the pre flight shadow Laird know, how much fuel do I have? Oh, no. So he realizes he's almost out of fuel. Obviously, he's a fugitive. He can't land at an airport. And so he as a guy who's never flown a day and his wife decides I've got to try to find a field somewhere to take this down because I can't land obviously in an airport. And so he lands it in this Unknown Speaker guy, do your ABCs Speaker 2 check your airspeed go look for your best work best place to land. And then do you gotta cram and you gotta correct always be Crowley's be crashing baby. And so Speaker 1 he he takes it down into this into this field. And he survives. It was not doesn't look like he botched it too much. Yeah, it was not a great landing. No, but it landed. And he got out and he went into the woods and just left it. And he waited a couple of days. And then he went into town and he started robbing some homes. waited a couple of days. Yeah. Let the heat dissipate. Someone's gonna find that plane. Yeah, they're gonna know, they're gonna know pretty quickly. Oh, someone crashed a plane in that field. And then someone's gonna pretty quickly realize my planes gone. Yeah. And so he waited a little bit. And then he went, he went out into this field. And here's the thing about him. He you know, he's a kid. And it's now it's too easy. He's 18. Yeah, is 2007 or 16 Still Facebook error. And so he says a Facebook page. And he's got it. He's hanging out in the woods with all his stolen goods. And he's posting pictures on his Facebook page. Unknown Speaker Are you an idiot? Unknown Speaker And he begins Speaker 2 posting, how do I get away with crime? How do I do tax fraud? Speaker 1 Here's the thing. He becomes famous, relatively big in that era of Facebook. I think he peaked at 20,000 Facebook followers, which was pretty big for that era Facebook. Okay. Unknown Speaker He does look familiar. Unknown Speaker Yeah. And so he Unknown Speaker he uses a very Unknown Speaker 2007 selfie to Yeah, it is. Speaker 1 He begins this lifestyle of camping out in the woods, going into town to burglarized homes, and he would steal pretty much just the essentials. He every once in a while Unknown Speaker will teach you how to do it to Unknown Speaker just join my course Speaker 1 every once in a while he would purchase stuff online with people's credit cards. But it was usually the stuff he would purchase would be like, like camping. So it's like, Speaker 2 here's the fuzzer let's say he breaks into someone's home. Yeah, purchase them with their credit card. Right? He's using their computer. He's his phone. I guess he's got a phone. Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, he's stolen. He's stolen computers. He's stolen phones, phones. Speaker 2 is he stealing people's computers? He's stealing people's property or using he ordered something to be delivered to the higher house. So Speaker 1 yeah, he's stiff. He lives out of town. And he stays there for a couple days. Speaker 2 Get it later. What did you get caught stealing the package? Speaker 1 Well, that's the thing he he finds people who are out on vacation. So this is Speaker 2 how funny it would be is if he broke into this whole home use their credit card to order food and all this stuff and orders a couple packages comes back two days later when his when his Amazon shipping has arrived. And then gets caught stealing and gets in trouble for that. Yeah, he's just like, yes, yeah, it Unknown Speaker was. Pack all I've done is steal the package and Speaker 2 be like, Were you saying that makes me feel like you didn't? He's like plain and simple. What was that? Did Speaker 1 you say? No, go? Walk it simple. Just walking. Simple, simple, just standing and sitting here. Simple, not moving at all. So this is great. That's it. My favorite phrase is not moving simple. Unknown Speaker Okay. So he's posting all this stuff on Speaker 1 Facebook. Yeah. So he for the next couple of years. He has this lifestyle. He goes by the Barefoot bandit. You He is living in the woods. And he's got this Facebook page and he's posting pictures and stuff. But here's, here's what he's doing though he's kind of smart about it, because what he's doing is he'll go in, he'll stay in the house for a couple days while people are out of town, go back into the woods camp out in the woods. And then when he feels like he's got a little too much heat on him after burglarizing a dozen or so homes in the area leaves, he steals a car. And then what he does is he takes that car. And until he's able, he's got cash now because he's stealing, but he never gets gas because he was worried about security cameras. So he would just ditch the car when he ran out of gas and steal a new car. So he was never land on a security camera and never spent money anywhere. And so it was less traceable. Okay, and, and then he would find a new town show up in a new town and then repeat the process set up camp somewhere in the woods, go into town when he needed stuff, and do this for a couple months. burglarized a couple dozen homes and then go on to the next town. Unknown Speaker I guess he's showering at the homes he Speaker 1 breaks into, oh, yeah, he's showering and he's got a whole routine. And he's eaten, like he's doing all this stuff. And so this goes on for a couple years. As estimated that he breaks into well over 100 homes. burglarized is a few dozen vehicles, and steals six airplanes, and uses those to jump town on multiple occasions as well. Each time waiting in the field of retirement ending in some field outside of town. And he goes from Washington, and he is in he repeats this in Washington, and Oregon and Idaho and North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, goes almost across the entire country. After two years of this whole thing, Unknown Speaker boring parts though. Speaker 1 Everyone's like, why don't you go to an interesting one, because the cool places are where the better cops are. I guess this was definitely this was not cool enough to have good cops. Unknown Speaker Yeah, it's I mean, it's still 2008. Speaker 1 But he would he was because he had kind of like had like an extended stay. The places he was robbing. He was like living in their home for a couple days. And so he's walking around barefoot. And so a lot of the crime scenes would have chalk outlines of bare feet, where he like I don't know, stepped in dirt and walk around barefoot or something. I don't know, I don't know why they knew as bare feet were walking through there. But a lot of the reports would end up with his bare feet in there. So they started calling on the Barefoot bandit. And that's where he got the name. And he loved it a little bit and leaned into it. And there was an event where the Millah night he broke into like a CVS. And he drew a chalk lines himself the bare feet walking all over and left a note and said this was here. Like the guy from mobile, didn't steal anything. Yeah, he just wants people to know who's here. And it was also he was he was interesting, too, because he didn't he said, What Unknown Speaker did they what was that? What Unknown Speaker about a name? I didn't know what Speaker 1 we need a name. We need. We need a name. And what if it was something that scales so it's like it could be we could be dry? We could be so what? No. And so here's the thing about him, though, like there was a sense that he had like, I mean, obviously he's burglarizing homes and sure, healing vehicles and planes and all that stuff, right. But there's a sense that there's a little bit of morality for him because he's never hurting anybody. Yeah. And he's also only stealing what he needs. Like he's not like he's people have like stashes of cash in the house. He only takes a little bit of He only takes enough to get by. And he's taking mostly food. When he breaks into places every once in a while. He's taken survival supplies if he and then he's doing some credit card fraud to order stuff online for survival, usually survival goods, usually. And so he's he's stealing stuff. Yes. But a lot of people are like, well, he's still in stuff to survive. He's on the run like he's an he's like, ethical, ethical. Yeah. To the point where in Idaho, he left a there's a veterinarian clinic and he left a card with $100 cash in it and signed it from his hand and said, Here's to help the animals from the Unknown Speaker Barefoot band. Unknown Speaker He said thanks for the feet. Unknown Speaker That barefoot bandit Unknown Speaker like just made a donation to a vet which vets are like we don't need your donation we Speaker 2 don't charge a lot. We're a business we tried a lot for profits. We put down the dog and still charging you appreciate the donation for like, Hey, I have really bad news about your dog. I'm really sorry about that. They're both Speaker 1 profitable edge of the business is their freezer rats. Yeah, the shots will be $300 but you want to make Speaker 2 sure Fast they last so long. Would you like a freezer rat? Oh, I'm sorry. What was that? Like a rat sickle? Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a wrap for your freezer, it tells you your freezer, it's a Speaker 2 whole thing. It's kind of, honestly, if you don't know what it is already, it's not worth explaining it to you. Like it's kind of one of those like, it's a little bit like, you either know, or you don't Speaker 1 you either know or you don't. And if you don't, you probably should keep it that way. Because otherwise, you're not gonna like Unknown Speaker I could tell you once I tell you, I can't tell Speaker 1 ya. Yeah, but you're gonna want to buy you'll spend their $100 a pop nearby Mall. Unknown Speaker Yeah, I don't know about the rent. Speaker 1 Thanks for checking out our show. If you like it, and you want to support be a part of what we're doing here. You can do that by becoming a patron. What happens there is you get to be in the community. We have a discord with our hosted producers, we have a lot of fun. We're super active in there every day, you get access to add free content a week before everybody else. And we have a zoom every month with our patrons. We hang out we eat pizza, we get to know you a little bit better. It's a blast. And there's a ton of other different benefits like merch discounts, birthday messages, things like that, that are super cool. If you want to be in that you can just text Dylan 266866. And that'll get you right in there. If not, we're just super glad that you're here. And thanks for watching our show. Speaker 1 So he's in Indiana, stealing cars and all throughout the whole thing. It's been two years. At this point. He's got $10,000 bounty on his head. He's wanted in whatever this is like nine states now. And so he's like, he's like I the Oh, also Canada. He went up to Canada for a minute. Oh, international Speaker 2 prime. Yeah. And so he's so he's not what did you fly there? Speaker 1 Yeah. And the end, he stole and did the same plane Canada for a little bit. And so now he's in Indiana, and he's like, he's like, Ah, this is sketchy. I gotta get out of here. Do you know enough to like, turn the transponder off, I guess. A couple a couple of weeks before the story I'm about to tell you. The FAA is like Speaker 2 this. Guy's stealing planes got him. The FAA will figure stuff out before the FBI. Speaker 1 And so the the FBI has been following them the all local municipalities are you going on? I'm homeless Speaker 2 on it. They can't return my letters, but they sure can't find this guy. Unknown Speaker So what people are starting to realize I Unknown Speaker wrote the FAA letter. No, it says, Unknown Speaker Dear FAA. Speaker 2 I was so perplexed when I saw the removed Speaker 2 from the menu, I'm wondering why you did Speaker 1 the FAA it's becoming really clear. If if there's a car that's ditched in town and getting burglarized, then it's like, oh, he's in town. They started to pick up on that's the airport. So they know he's in Indiana, Indianapolis now. And so the FAA is like, Hey, you guys need to go call all the private plane owners in the city and tell them hey, don't leave your keys on your seats. Because there's a guy who's stealing planes. Otherwise, your plane is gonna get stolen? Yeah. They call this meeting all the private plane holders come to this meeting. 2000. This is no late 2009. And they tell them hey, there's a plane banded on the loose. We believe he's in this town. He's stolen six small single engine aircraft. You own one of those. And so we want you to be on high alert, lock your planes don't leave your keys. And I was like and they're like, well, I'll take questions at the end. Hi, do you want my plane got stolen this morning? They're like, okay. Do you think any Do we have any data Gjerde Do we have any data on how well the plane rats do against this situation? Unknown Speaker Yeah, once he gets a certain altitude they'll on thaw. So, yeah, they tell free to move about the cabin. Speaker 1 They tell it they tell everyone to lock up their stuff. Well, there's one specific pilot who misses the meeting. Okay. One guy, one guy who happens to be his plane. Yeah. And so his plane as plane gets gets stolen for sure. And Unknown Speaker It leaves the banner guy Unknown Speaker unfair DUI, we can help. Oh, man. Speaker 1 So he, he's still this. This guy's specific planet is a guy that last name Miller and I can't remember his first name right now, Donald steals his play. And his his plan is I need to get out of the US as we find out that Cuba doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. And so if you can get to Cuba, then he can start a new life, live there free of crime, and not ever get extradited for his crimes in the US. Sure. And so he steals the plane and he tries his first overwater flight. Here's the thing. This is the seventh flight ever. Yeah. And it's every time it's been different airplanes. And so he luckily checked the fuel and made sure this aircraft had been enough fuel to make that distance Indianapolis to Cuba. But that's a long flight, very long flight. But it has to stop. But while he a miscalculates the flight path, and he ends up over the Bahamas, which makes it very far but is running out of fuel, Bahamas, so he decides to take it down in the Bahamas. And he Boches the landing because the dirt on the island was softer. And so the landing gear just sunk into the dirt. Oh, no wet. And that triggered the transponder that there was a crash. And so the FAA gets the alert. Yeah. And they call this guy and like, Hey, did you just crash? It's Fourth of July. It's Fourth of July weekend just crashed your Unknown Speaker plane in the Bahamas? And he's like Speaker 2 yeah, I didn't answer because I was like, it was called me. And my buddy made a really funny joke where he said Let freedom ring inside. Sorry, I didn't answer right away. There was it. Are you calling about that meeting I missed earlier? Because I real sorry. But I didn't want to go. I just didn't want to do that. Do that. Speaker 1 So the guys like yeah, that I That wasn't me. I'm still in Indiana. And they're like, Okay, let's we Unknown Speaker renamed this place, the Bahamas. Speaker 1 And so the FAA puts two and two together and says, oh, a plane from someone in Indiana where we know Colton was from, or was at just crashed to the Bahamas. And the owner doesn't know about it. This is probably our guy. Yeah. So they send the Coast Guard down to go get them and they're like, you guys go get them. Yeah, we know you don't usually do gun stuff, but maybe bring a gun this time Take. Unknown Speaker Take a sword because they Speaker 1 do know, he hasn't used a weapon. But they do know he's armed. And they do know at this point. He's kind of desperate because he's, you know, committed to a lot of felonies. He's got a $10,000 bounty on his head. Sure. There's been very vocal talks. Over the last few months, that there were bounty hunters looking for him like they'd been like the other bounty hunters or after you keep seeing that on his Facebook feed. People are DMing like, Hey, I'm a bounty hunter. Where are you at? Unknown Speaker Hey, what's up, man? You want to hang out? I just wanna be friends. Unknown Speaker Well, tell me a little bit about robbery. What are the rules? Hi, Speaker 2 I'm new to town. I saw your profile. And we'd love to sponsor a post. Speaker 1 So he, he crashes he gets out and he starts. Well, I'm this is Bahamas now. I live here now. And so he goes and does the same thing he always does. He sets up camp somewhere in the wilderness and goes into town to steal stuff and live off of stealing stuff. And so he's there for 10 days. The Coast Guard gets there they find the crash site. He's not there. But they're like we know he can't get far. Yes, he's you know, in the Bahamas, he's gonna steal another plane in the Bahamas. When you steal someone's speedboat out of work, and he's doing the same thing he always does. And on July 11 2010, this is about the whatever. week later, seven days after he crashed. He pulls up to a party, a local party where the locals walk on the beach party in a speedboat and pulls up close to the shore and yells and says this is not a joke. He says, Hey, where are your cops? And the locals are like, excuse me what he's like, where are your cops at? And then he's like, I mean, we've got we've got cops here and he's like, this is tourist season. And so they're used to the tourists being weird. And he's like he's in he's obviously a tourist and So he's like, he's like he's like, I mean, we have cops in the Bahamas, that but we don't I don't think we have it as many as you guys do it, but they're around. And yeah, I'm bored. Well you call them Yeah. And the guy was like, That was weird. And then he just speeds off. And he says, he said, I'm Colton Harris more look me up on the internet, and then speeds off in the Speedboat. Speaker 2 So he's like, he's speeding through the ocean, right? He's like, and then part of them goes, I'm not even being chased. Speaker 1 He's like, this isn't fun anymore. To want to be. This is too easy. I want to be chased. It's about the chase for me. Like I'm being chased by Coast Guard pursue me. Come on, give me Unknown Speaker I'm available for it. You're not Speaker 1 gonna find it. So he's driving around this island that night. This is late at night waiting for the cop waiting for the police to show up. And the party was like, alright, we'll call him and so Speaker 2 he's straight up doing Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, he's just like, oh, like one star. Speaker 1 And so the police. They show up and they find him and they start chasing him. And he's he's in a speedboat that's Unknown Speaker so much faster than you. Speaker 1 He's so much faster. And so he's, he's losing them. Unknown Speaker But slowing down a little bit, just to just to keep just to keep him Speaker 1 like on Yeah. And so he's kind of toying with them. But he doesn't, he's not a local. He doesn't know. He doesn't know these waters. And so he's flying for now. And he hits the sandbar. And he gets caught in the sandbar. And he starts trying to back up and trying to push it and he's just digging themselves deeper into the sandbar. And so then the police catch up to him. And they kind of have this interchange. They're yelling at each other. He's throwing laptops into the ocean. And they're like, What are you throwing over there? It's not just my picture. I stopped Unknown Speaker don't worry about it. Yeah, Unknown Speaker they can swim. It's fine. All these rats, like so many rats frozen. Now they still frozen. Unknown Speaker Down the waters. Speaker 1 Water was cool. I could move I can run. I can freeze. So it gets into this interchange. And then the reports are foggy here. Unknown Speaker He got tased though. Speaker 1 It's not clear exactly what happens. There's there's a couple of versions of the story. But what the most accepted version of this story is that he took out his firearm, he pointed it himself. They had a 20 minute long conversation boat about Heart to Heart boat to boat. And then the conversation went south and he fired around and they lit the boat up. disabled the boat. Didn't hit him now. He was fine. And so then they came closer and they arrested him. So Bahamian government the next day, just parades for him. Yeah. They just parade them around the Bahamas. Oh, they literally take them around town. Like we got this guy. He's super wanted everyone us who is like, look him up. He's on the internet. He's got 20,000 Speaker 2 show up to the Shrek pre show to a high school play. We got. We got. We got him. Yeah, he's a bulletproof vest. Speaker 1 Yeah, they parade them around town. And like we got him. We got the guy hanging his head like that. Like, he's defeated. He's been caught. Yeah. And so the US is like, sweet, like, they got him. We'll get him extradited. And they were like, no, but they they're doing the math. They're doing the math. They're like, well, the charges he's facing in the Bahamas. He's looking at 10 years in prison in the Bahamas, and then we'll get him to the US and then he's looking at a lot more because he's like, over 100 felons, so they're like us keep him. Yeah, well, they're like, we're gonna have to wait for him to serve his time in the Bahamas before they extradite them to us. And so he goes, they wait a couple of weeks. He goes on trial. And in the Bahamas, for some reason. And no one really knows why Unknown Speaker was like, Oh, cool. Speaker 1 The only thing they charged him with he robbed a handful of homes. He crashed that plane, and he's sold a speedboat and he fired a shot at an officer. But the only thing they charged him with was entering the country without a passport, which was just a $300 fine. Speaker 2 And he was like, Oh, I threw that in the wall. Carter, he's like, Speaker 1 I just tried when I got stuck. And I weighed too much. I heard papers heavy Unknown Speaker through through $300. Exactly, yeah. Speaker 1 dollars. And so the United States government was like, we'll pay that fine. Can we have them? And so they did. They paid his fine. He was like, thanks. And he's like, you're welcome. And so they took him to court. And he I don't know, if he hired or managed to line up, pled not guilty, he lined up the same lawyer that Ted Bundy hired, oh, for a very specific reason. This gets kind of smart. He hired the same lawyer that Ted Bundy hired because this guy has expertise across state lines. Now, his expertise is not to do a not guilty plea is to do a guilty plea, but get the jury on your side and feel bad for you and lighten your sentence. Because he knew he's like, he's like, I did it. I can't get out of this. And he's like, but maybe I can get a lighter sentence if I hire someone who's really good at that. And so he gets this guy. And they have a very long hearing. But the the picture that they paint is that this is a kid who never had a chance he had a father that wasn't present. He had a mom who was an alcoholic, okay, he was actually he had fetal alcohol syndrome, because his mother drank while he was sure in the womb, and so and lived in poverty. And he was a good kid, like he tried the first time he was in prison. Sure. And he never hurt anybody. He didn't steal any more than what he needed. That was the picture that they painted. And so the Speaker 2 majority was like death. Kill the poor. Whoa, we didn't expect that outcome from the jury. It turns out the jury is a bunch of monsters. And so the jury was a jury of his peers. And he threw a ball into the ocean and Unknown Speaker I was really dumb, I'm sorry. Speaker 1 So the jury and the judge were like, they felt bad for the guy, cuz they were like, Yeah, he did a lot of things wrong. He's, he's a product of his environment. And so he ends up getting a kind of dual punishment. So the first time of the punishment was seven years in prison. Okay, well, she ends up serving five years and gets out on good behavior. So he got out in 2016. The other side of the punishment, this is an interesting part of the story that I haven't told you yet. Early in the story, after he has stolen the plane, that first time, he goes back to Oregon. And when he's in Oregon, he meets up with a lawyer on an island, he steals a boat goes onto an island meets up with this lawyer. And he says, Hey, he says, I want to sell my life story to a movie producer to make a movie out of this. He's like, can you help me do that? And they made it so you can't. And the lawyer was like, yeah, we can help you with that. And so he starts building this relationship with this lawyer, during this whole time when he's on his way to Indiana, setting up this relationship where he can sell his life story. So he can go to Cuba, sell a story, have a couple million dollars live off of that for the rest of his life. Unknown Speaker Sure. Speaker 1 The, the other part of the sentence was like, when you sell that, when you have that sale goes through, you have to use that to pay back all the people you robbed, and you can't keep a dime of it. And so he sells it for seven figures. He does sell to 20th Century Fox for seven figures, and he has to repay every person he's robbed, like cookies from. He's like, he's like, Yeah, I stole 1499 from your house. So here's that. So he didn't see a dime from Santa story. 20 Century Fox has used it to make two documentaries. And allegedly, they are working on a film, but there are YouTube Speaker 2 money, dude. What? They're gonna take our YouTube money 20 Century Fox. Yeah, not afraid of them. They're gonna say you can't tell a story. Now we get a cut of your YouTube earnings. Unknown Speaker What? Here's, here's the thing. I'm gonna be running so fast. Unknown Speaker They're gonna be like, where's this guy? Speaker 2 I've been doing this the whole episode. So I'm still I'm just got a couple more minutes here and I'm Speaker 1 done. So yeah, so they, so he didn't see a dime of that. He's, he got out. He started in 2017 a GoFundMe to get his pilot's license. And the FAA will never take that down. That's a scam. It's like bummer. Okay, you know, Unknown Speaker psycho. You know, you know, Unknown Speaker he really wanted it. Speaker 2 I don't know if well, he probably knew he probably knew he's been steady enough that he knows that the requirements are you can't be a felon. He liked Speaker 1 it. He liked it. There was something about the I just said that about crashing a plane Unknown Speaker are where to learn to lay. Speaker 1 And so in 2019, he started trying to make a career out of being a public speaker. But his parole officer didn't allow that. But it's true. It's travel there. Well, yeah, that's that's the big thing. But his parole ended in 2020. Obviously couldn't travel then. The question is, now that things have cleared and his parole is over. We might have him come to a town near you as a public speaker. Let's ask him he's been. So yeah, that's the story of the Barefoot bandit. Also known as Colton Harris more. Wow, he just got bored in the Bahamas. Unknown Speaker It's just uh, hey. Call the cops. Where are your cops? Um, I'm bored. Chase, Chase, come in. Come and get a photo. I was like, I was just joking about that kind of there. I thought I was gonna get away to be home. They Speaker 1 just chased me. They didn't do this part. And here's the wild thing is he wasn't that speedboat. And he, you know, you could kind of like lock the throttle. So he locks the throttle, and he's flying. Like, whatever's fast on a boat, I don't know, like 30 knots. And he's still standing in the boat. And he's looking back looking the other way, like, standing on the front of the boat looking the other way towards the cops chasing and they're far away, or far away. And he's just sitting there with the fiddle. Speaker 3 Things around last night is a production of space. Tim media produced by Christian Taylor audio is edited by Alex Garnett video by Connor Betts social media is run by Caleb Walker and graphic design by Caleb Goldberg. Our hosts are Jaron Meyers and Tim stone please follow us on social media at tellen podcast that's ti LL IN podcast, leave a review, comment, subscribe, wherever you are. Thank you for listening to things on my site. Transcribed by https://otter.ai