Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton ZD so glad to see you, Good to
Speaker 2: see you. Do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do. I do our email inbox.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I don't even get close.
Speaker 4: It's ridiculous. The interns forwarded me this one though, That
Speaker 4: is pretty good. Subject tv head fromhead from Jeff Hammer.
Speaker 2: Okay, haad, it's a.
Speaker 4: Good afternoon, Ridiculous Crime crew. It has been brought to
Speaker 4: my attention that, in true Henrico County, Virginia weirdness, there
Speaker 4: was a guy in twenty nineteen wearing a TV on
Speaker 4: his head leaving old box type TVs on people's porches
Speaker 4: in the middle of the night. Links provided below. The
Speaker 4: wild thing is that all of the sets left on
Speaker 4: people's porches were operational. They identified the man the press
Speaker 4: dubbed TV head, but to the best of my knowledge,
Speaker 4: he was never charged, although he was suspected of committing
Speaker 4: several burglaries in the area. I found out, yeah, I
Speaker 4: found out about this talking to a colleague because here
Speaker 4: on the opposite end of the state, a man was
Speaker 4: recently arrested for taking a ride on a shopping buggy
Speaker 4: out of a discount grocery store and riding it on
Speaker 4: the highway. He told the arresting officer that he was
Speaker 4: quote tired of walking everywhere. Somehow, that one didn't make
Speaker 4: the local news. I've seen some weird things and dealt
Speaker 4: with some really strange people in the sixteen years I've
Speaker 4: worked in the private security and law enforcement fields. But
Speaker 4: I think these two might take the cake.
Speaker 2: Oh nice ones.
Speaker 3: Jeff the TV head? How big is the TV on
Speaker 3: his head? And is it wobbley? Is what happens?
Speaker 2: Is he a member of Parland Funkadelic? Perhaps good question?
Speaker 4: Is he is he the one behind the max headroom hacking?
Speaker 2: Have you seen the guy in New York who rides
Speaker 2: around on a mini bike with a like a microwave
Speaker 2: on his head. No slides up and then the microwave
Speaker 2: door opens up and there's a guy's head in there,
Speaker 2: and he's like he starts talking and he gives you
Speaker 2: like safety advice, and then he closes it with a
Speaker 2: flick of his head and he rides off on his
Speaker 2: mini bikes. Cousin so New York.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing and ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Totally ridiculous. Thank you, mister Hammer.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Jeff Hammer.
Speaker 2: So, uh you got a second though, I got something
Speaker 2: for you. It's totally ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yes, get like ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I heard that about you. We get a lot of
Speaker 2: requests for certain stories, right, and frankly, it's kind of
Speaker 2: ridiculous that I have never covered this story. Why is
Speaker 2: it taking me so long?
Speaker 3: What's wrong with you?
Speaker 2: I want to tell you, Elizabeth, the story of my
Speaker 2: new favorite anti hero, the Barefoot Bandit Man. Theis Ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and
Speaker 2: cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free, a one
Speaker 2: hundred percent ridiculous Yes, oh, Elizabeth arn Long before this
Speaker 2: cat was known as the Barefoot Bandit, his government name
Speaker 2: was Colton Harris.
Speaker 3: More, Colton Harris Colter.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call him Colt Okay now born on March
Speaker 2: twenty second, nineteen ninety one. He arrived in this world
Speaker 2: in Washington State. You know the upper left corner of
Speaker 2: the map. Yeah, place called Camono or Camano Island in
Speaker 2: the San Juan Islands. I think it's Camono Islands now,
Speaker 2: My man, Colt. He did not have a normal or
Speaker 2: even what we call a safe childhood. He was, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: was raised into a home that was headed for an
Speaker 2: ugly split.
Speaker 3: Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the divide occurred when he was a toddler. His
Speaker 2: parents broke up. His father left him and his mother,
Speaker 2: Pamela alone. They were left to live in a single
Speaker 2: wide trailer in Washington. Yeah. So what made matters more
Speaker 2: dire was the fact that his mother was a full
Speaker 2: blown alcoholic. Oh god, yeah, rough, rough business for this kid,
Speaker 2: which means also for her elementary school aged son. His
Speaker 2: life was unstable, his home life chaotic, abusive, all the
Speaker 2: bad things.
Speaker 3: Right, it's a great story, thank you.
Speaker 2: Not only that he was also bullied at school, Elizabeth. Oh,
Speaker 2: there was no escape for Coult. Yeah, right, finally one day,
Speaker 2: but this is before he's a teenager. He runs away
Speaker 2: from home. He spends his days living alone in the
Speaker 2: forest on the Camino Islets. It's like a well rainforest ground.
Speaker 3: Right, that must have been really peaceful for yeah.
Speaker 2: Except for he's a you know, almost a teenage boy.
Speaker 2: He's a growing boy. So to eat, he breaks into
Speaker 2: empty vacation homes I like that. Yeah, And now once
Speaker 2: inside he finds that these homeowners they've left all sorts
Speaker 2: of stuff inside their cabin, so he steals whatever he
Speaker 2: needs to live in the woods. Tents, sleeping bags, camping supply,
Speaker 2: you name it.
Speaker 3: The hermit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very much like that, just the young version, right.
Speaker 2: So eventually he comes back home to the trailer because
Speaker 2: he's a boy and he can't stay out in the
Speaker 2: woods forever. So at this point, Cult now he reached
Speaker 2: school and he's trying his best to live a normal
Speaker 2: life as he can, and he's going in and out
Speaker 2: a juvie. It's rough, right, But he has a few friends.
Speaker 2: He tells them of his forest adventures, trying to impress
Speaker 2: them with what he does when they don't see him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of his classmates this a girl named Christa Postma.
Speaker 2: She would tell the press how her friend Colt would
Speaker 2: often get in trouble at school. You know, as I've said,
Speaker 2: but she also said the Cult was quote a nice kid,
Speaker 2: and he quote seemed really smart, though he didn't know
Speaker 2: how to put that into his schoolwork. I relate to
Speaker 2: this kid, you know, I didn't know how to do
Speaker 2: it either. So another classmate, he remembered how Colt would
Speaker 2: sleep in class, you know, just put his head down
Speaker 2: on the desk, the teacher called on him to embarrass him,
Speaker 2: Colt would recite back what the teacher just said, like
Speaker 2: near him, verbatim.
Speaker 4: I always feel like, if you're a teacher and a
Speaker 4: kid falls asleep, like the first time, wake come up.
Speaker 4: If it happens a lot, something's happening, right, I don't
Speaker 4: have a home, and maybe just let the kids sleep.
Speaker 2: For real, right, be a little considerate, thoughtful yea. Anyway,
Speaker 2: this kid, obviously he's an intelligent kid. He's able to
Speaker 2: recite back to the teacher. He doesn't need to pay attention.
Speaker 2: He gets bored, you know. Now after school, Krista and
Speaker 2: Colt they would hang out together in this town. There
Speaker 2: wasn't a lot of places for them to go, so
Speaker 2: they'd hang out outside the local library. Now, one day,
Speaker 2: this kid who's a couple of years older than them,
Speaker 2: this kid, his name is Harley Davidson iron Wing.
Speaker 3: Stop the press is Harley.
Speaker 2: Harley Davidson iron Wing. Now it is christ I love this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So she recalls old Harley Davidson iron Wing, and he
Speaker 2: had an instant influence on Colt. As she put it,
Speaker 2: when Colt quote wasn't around Harley, he'd be totally chill.
Speaker 2: When Harley showed up, Colt would suddenly be all, I'm
Speaker 2: so big and bad ou Right, you.
Speaker 3: Got a friend named Harley Davidson Ironing, You'd.
Speaker 2: Never go wrong in such a common story of people
Speaker 2: like us, like punk kids. You're like, oh, yeah, my
Speaker 2: friend Harley David's and iron Wing.
Speaker 3: That's like his government name, right.
Speaker 2: That's government name, that's not his street name. Yeah, that's amazing,
Speaker 2: So naturally, Elizabeth, Harley Davidson iron Wing had been in
Speaker 2: juvie and for two years, and he knew the ins
Speaker 2: and outs of street. He knew the rules of how
Speaker 2: to make it as a low level crimer. He taught
Speaker 2: Colt everything he knew. So Harley Davidson iron Wing comes
Speaker 2: from a similar background. Obviously home broken by divorce, raised
Speaker 2: by a single mom. His mother is also a drinker,
Speaker 2: she does drugs, also abusive. So these kids are they
Speaker 2: totally get each other, right, two bad boys quickly bond.
Speaker 2: His new mentor if you will, takes Colt under his
Speaker 2: wing and teaches him how to iron criminally fly. Thank
Speaker 2: you so, And this this point he teaches cult how
Speaker 2: to pick locks, how to break into these nice expensive
Speaker 2: luxury vacation homes on the island Harley Davidson, iron Wing.
Speaker 2: He also shows him how to find the likely places
Speaker 2: keys are hidden, like all the things you know, like, oh,
Speaker 2: people don't like to do this, that kind of thing.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: He gives Colt also with his rule book for vacation
Speaker 2: home robberies.
Speaker 3: I would love a copy of this rule book.
Speaker 2: Well, I got four rules for it. If you watch.
Speaker 2: Number one, don't rob somebody's house if you know who
Speaker 2: lives there.
Speaker 3: It's a good one.
Speaker 2: Good advice because they could recognize you. And also it's
Speaker 2: just not nice to two. There's that as well. Number
Speaker 2: two don't turn the lights on ever. Yeah right, Also
Speaker 2: good advice because you don't want to call attention to your.
Speaker 4: Crimeerprints all over you always with the fingerprints.
Speaker 2: Number three, if you get spotted, run, Okay, I like that,
Speaker 2: it's probably the best advice. Don't hesitate.
Speaker 3: Run.
Speaker 2: And number four, lastly, never feel guilty. Once you choose crime,
Speaker 2: you've already crossed over. It's too late to be guilty,
Speaker 2: so guiltless.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm cutting these guys a lot of slack
Speaker 4: because they're too like troubled kid kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, breaking into vacation home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a vacation home, so you know, go forth,
Speaker 4: But these kids are going to grow up.
Speaker 3: It's the problem.
Speaker 2: You're talking to my youth, Elizabeth. You don't know what
Speaker 2: they could grow up into. Now, with this general rule
Speaker 2: book guiding him, Colt goes to work as a break
Speaker 2: in artists. Right so, he and old Harley Davidson, they
Speaker 2: work as a team. They break into the luxury vacation
Speaker 2: homes all over the island. Harley Davidson, iron Wing. He's
Speaker 2: a fan of electronics. He also likes jewelry. He likes
Speaker 2: expensive portable items that he can pawn, right, yeah, Colt.
Speaker 2: He likes to steal food. He often will go into
Speaker 2: the houses and make himself a hot meal.
Speaker 3: Good for him.
Speaker 2: He's a kid, so he also likes to play video games.
Speaker 2: So like, while Harley Davidson's casing the house, he's making
Speaker 2: like some hot oatmeal and goes sits down to play
Speaker 2: the game of like whatever right now. He's also a
Speaker 2: teenager at this point, so he likes to steal nice clothes,
Speaker 2: anything that fits him that might freshen his drip. The
Speaker 2: other kids won't make fun of and over the years,
Speaker 2: Colt continues to get into trouble and he gets caught,
Speaker 2: you know, and then the police take him back to
Speaker 2: his mother's place. Sometimes he gets put in juvenile hall.
Speaker 2: As I've said, you know, she'd have to come and
Speaker 2: collect him, and then that'd be embarrassing for him. When he's fifteen,
Speaker 2: his mother is also getting irritated with this whole thing.
Speaker 2: She kicks him out of the house. She's like, I've
Speaker 2: had it with him fifteen. She's done with it. So
Speaker 2: now where does Colt go?
Speaker 3: To the woods?
Speaker 2: He moves back into the forest. So he lives like
Speaker 2: a real world Peter Pan there on his own never
Speaker 2: never Land, and he continues to break into vacation homes,
Speaker 2: mostly just to eat into amuse him, right, But he's
Speaker 2: a kid, so he also signs of his crimes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he doesn't always follow the old rule book of Harley
Speaker 2: David's an Iron Wing. So the word spreads on the islands.
Speaker 2: Some locals they talk, compare notes, they determine there's probably
Speaker 2: some teen boys breaking in. So this casual man begins
Speaker 2: to find this kid. Now, Elizabeth, I think I need
Speaker 2: to do a better job explaining this island. You have
Speaker 2: to understand, this island is like one third vacation homes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he just failed. It's a happy hunting ground for a
Speaker 2: teenage boy.
Speaker 4: And if you're in, if you're impoverished, it's like rubbing
Speaker 4: it in your face. Oh that this like dichotomy between
Speaker 4: the people who actually live their year round and struggle
Speaker 4: and then the people who swan in, yes and have
Speaker 4: a great time totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the rest of them are there doing like
Speaker 2: menial tasks that can help these people, like oh, let
Speaker 2: me weld your tanks for your home or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So at this point he's uh, he starts getting a
Speaker 2: little more aggressive in his approach as he gets older,
Speaker 2: and he starts to feel this bitterness in this division,
Speaker 2: if you will. Socially, he starts to steal things like identities.
Speaker 2: So what that means is he steals credit cards. And
Speaker 2: then he learned to become a better thief because rather
Speaker 2: than breaking into homes, he now has owner's credit cards.
Speaker 2: So what does he do? Ye uses their computers and
Speaker 2: then he pulls a full on Elizabeth and he goes
Speaker 2: online shopping and has stuff just delivered to the house
Speaker 2: and he just steals it from the front port.
Speaker 3: What have you heard?
Speaker 2: So he has like all kinds of stuff delivered to
Speaker 2: these vacation homes for him to steal later, and he'd leave,
Speaker 2: circle back, come back on like a oh my deliveries here,
Speaker 2: I got to go back to the house. Boom. He
Speaker 2: gets his packages. Mostly though he's purchasing like survival gear
Speaker 2: and food. I don't want to give you the wrong idea.
Speaker 2: He's not like buying like four wheelers. But he comes
Speaker 2: to collect it and he goes back to the forest. Now,
Speaker 2: eventually the locals they get the police to start paying
Speaker 2: attention to this because it's starting to ratchet up and
Speaker 2: the crimes that the locals are gossiping about. Everybody's talking
Speaker 2: about it. Cops are fine, we'll investigate. So they go
Speaker 2: out and they find evidence. Oh there's truly are deliveries
Speaker 2: being brought out to houses that are unoccupied. So they
Speaker 2: start finding also evidence of identity theft. They're like, oh man,
Speaker 2: this is definitely happening. So the local cops are like,
Speaker 2: this is above our pay right. Yeah. They call in
Speaker 2: the FBI. Wow. Yeah, So the field agents arrive. They
Speaker 2: searched the rainforest.
Speaker 3: Camano Island mail fraud.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's once at that point, is your federal Yeah,
Speaker 2: so he They quickly, the FEDS. They quickly locate Colt's campsite,
Speaker 2: or rather one of his campsites, because he's got multiple campsites,
Speaker 2: but it's this is his main campsite. And the kid
Speaker 2: has a cash of credit cards, check books, driver's licenses,
Speaker 2: stolen laptops, oh, iPads, yeah, jewelry, all sorts of stuff, right,
Speaker 2: but also the food and the survival equipment. So what
Speaker 2: they don't find, oh is Colt. Oh he's gone. He
Speaker 2: hears the FBI's choppers and the field agents, is like
Speaker 2: kind of rummaging around in the woods, cuts out, disappears.
Speaker 2: Not even the local police seeum, he sneaks off. So
Speaker 2: where does he go, Elizabeth, He's now out of the
Speaker 2: woods to the big city. Goes back to his mother's trailer. Oh,
Speaker 2: but he sees the FBI going to his mother's trailer
Speaker 2: and the agent server with a warrant for his arrest,
Speaker 2: so he dips out of there. The local cops post
Speaker 2: wanted posters all over the island.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Meanwhile, Colt's still on the lamb. No one's got
Speaker 2: to him. He's somewhere out there in the wood, lurking
Speaker 2: like Bigfoot. It's just a matter of time before he'll
Speaker 2: strike again because he has to. He's gonna get hungry, right,
Speaker 2: so he breaks into a vacation home. The local police
Speaker 2: and FBI agents, they're patrolling everywhere waiting for him to strike. Right. Finally,
Speaker 2: this night, when he finds his unoccupied home and breaks in,
Speaker 2: he does what he normally does. He makes himself a
Speaker 2: hot meal. Right, but he makes one mistake. He forgets
Speaker 2: again what Harley David's and Iron Wing told him in
Speaker 2: the Simple Rule Book for break in Artists.
Speaker 3: Did he turn the lights?
Speaker 2: He turns on a light while he eats his hot
Speaker 2: meal by himself. The neighbors see the light through the trees.
Speaker 2: These neighbors, Elizabeth, they're like you. They're busy bodies. So
Speaker 2: they know no one's supposed to be in that house.
Speaker 2: We know that the lenders are gone. Yeah, so the
Speaker 2: neighbors call the cops. The cops have been waiting for this.
Speaker 2: They race across the island, They surround the vacation home.
Speaker 2: Now they're smart. They pull up without turning on their lights,
Speaker 2: without turning on their sirens, just silent descent. Right, they're
Speaker 2: able to sneak up on the vacation home and catch
Speaker 2: Colt unaware. Boom gets arrested. February two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: Colton Harris Moore crime spree comes to a sudden screeching stop.
Speaker 2: He's charged with twenty three criminal charges.
Speaker 3: Yikes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, once these charges all get sorted out and the
Speaker 2: lawyers confirm, though, they eventually agree to have Colt plead
Speaker 2: guilty to just three charges because he is a kid, right,
Speaker 2: so the prosecutors are satisfied. His sentence. He gets three
Speaker 2: years at a maximum security juvenile detention film. Oh wow,
Speaker 2: I didn't even know they had maximum security juvenile Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, but I just thought they'd kind
Speaker 2: of put him like in the yard with the adults,
Speaker 2: but like separated by offense, you know, like you got
Speaker 2: to go to the real prison. But we got a.
Speaker 3: Specials place for you, the kid's table.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, No, they have their owns anyway, Colt. He
Speaker 2: takes all this in stride. In fact, his behavior improves Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: He settles into this rhythm of life in a maximum
Speaker 2: security juvie facility. He's chom, a model prisoner exactly. He
Speaker 2: likes the attention, the structure works for him. He gets
Speaker 2: rewarded for his good behavior, transferred to a lower security facility,
Speaker 2: a residential treatment center. Right because he may or may
Speaker 2: not have fetal alcohol syndrome or some damage from his mother.
Speaker 4: Say, goodness, you know, I think this kid's been up
Speaker 4: against it from.
Speaker 2: Birth, completely up against it is the best way to
Speaker 2: put it. Now, this new group home that they put
Speaker 2: him in, it has no fence, has no prison guards,
Speaker 2: just like a nice place for people to rehabilitate. Right.
Speaker 2: Short two months after he's transferred there for good behavior,
Speaker 2: Colt opens an unlocked window and he's gone. So now
Speaker 2: it's April two thousand and eight. Cold is once again free,
Speaker 2: ready to get back to his criming ways. Oh boy, Okay, Lizabeth,
Speaker 2: let's take a little break. Now you got to know
Speaker 2: the boy, and after these ads, I'll tell you how
Speaker 2: this story gets crazy and he earns his gnome to
Speaker 2: crime the Barefoot bandit. Oh, Elizabeth, Darren, how do you
Speaker 2: like my man Colt and Harrison more fascinating? Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well, okay, so at this point he's about to become
Speaker 2: like a real bona fire criminal because now he's been
Speaker 2: inside outside, he's been, he's been, he's had his cherry
Speaker 2: broken by the cops where he's like, oh, you're going
Speaker 2: three away, and he gets he escapes. So now he's
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 3: Lamb and he grows up, and he grows up.
Speaker 2: Convicted criminal, all right, So he breaks out the group
Speaker 2: home Colt. He goes back to his old stomping grounds.
Speaker 2: He goes right back to Commono Island or Camano Island.
Speaker 3: Interesting, I know those.
Speaker 2: It didn't take him long for the local authorities to
Speaker 2: hear about a new wave of vacation home breaking, and
Speaker 2: then they hear the cult escape from Juvie. So they
Speaker 2: put two and two together. They get to four on
Speaker 2: their own, and they go only scour the woods of
Speaker 2: the forest. This is of course, also accompanied by all
Speaker 2: kinds of news stories, because now he's making these. The
Speaker 2: local cops look about his incompetent as Keystone cops. So
Speaker 2: like local outlets like Oregon Live, Seattle Times, the host
Speaker 2: intelligence or they're writing about this. Now the national media
Speaker 2: now catches wind of the story. They send reporters out
Speaker 2: to go go see if there's something there, right, national
Speaker 2: news folks. They find his mother's trailer they talk to
Speaker 2: on camera, where she pleads for leniency for her poor
Speaker 2: troubled son. She also asked her son, if he's watching,
Speaker 2: to turn himself in.
Speaker 4: You know what again, I think I've said this before.
Speaker 4: My advice is that any event of a natural disaster
Speaker 4: or some sort of criminal event, do not get interviewed
Speaker 4: by the television stations.
Speaker 2: Just very deal will come from that.
Speaker 3: It won't and so just no comment.
Speaker 2: Best you'll go viral and not in the way you
Speaker 2: probably think.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: So, now do you think caught these interviews and he
Speaker 2: turned himself in? No? No, no, he did not.
Speaker 3: Know because he's not turning on TVs and listening.
Speaker 2: He's out there with Bigfoot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he's also if he breaks into a vacation home,
Speaker 4: he's not like, well, let's see what's on the news.
Speaker 4: You right to the video games, play some video games,
Speaker 4: and then bounce out.
Speaker 2: So for the next three months, he keeps evading the
Speaker 2: local police, he keeps breaking into homes, he keeps stealing,
Speaker 2: keeps cooking himself hot meals. He also starts now to
Speaker 2: steal cars because he's like sixteen, Yeah, so he starts
Speaker 2: taking those out for joy rides. And these drives. They're
Speaker 2: a new wrinkle for him because it is his profile
Speaker 2: on the island. Now he's spinning around and there's cops
Speaker 2: in cars. It's not they kept finding him in the woods.
Speaker 2: Now just on a street.
Speaker 4: Well, and there's a big difference between like stealing a
Speaker 4: box of mac and cheese and the water used to
Speaker 4: boil the Posita versus there goes my car.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's my that's my BMW.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he gets caught, and this is July eighteen, two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight. My man Colt gets spotted by the cops.
Speaker 2: At the moment, he's driving a stolen whip, a black Mercedes,
Speaker 2: Oh Dad, going one hundred miles an hour. Whoa dand
Speaker 2: cops give chase. They keep in mind Cold hasn't been
Speaker 2: driving for long. No one really taught him. He's just
Speaker 2: been learning on.
Speaker 3: His own, like you know, grand theft autos.
Speaker 2: Pretty much. Going as fast as he is chased by
Speaker 2: the cops, the expected occurs, he crashed, but being my
Speaker 2: man Colt, it doesn't go the way you would think.
Speaker 2: He does crash the black Mercedes. You're right about that.
Speaker 2: But just before he crashes the car, he leaps from
Speaker 2: the speeding car, oh way, and the black Mercedes goes
Speaker 2: slams into a tree. The cops screeched to a halt,
Speaker 2: and Colt, unharmed, runs for it disappears back into the woods.
Speaker 4: He has the confidence of a kid who's just watched
Speaker 4: and stuff and not been real and.
Speaker 2: Still has also like the bones and the like ligaments
Speaker 2: and attendance of a kid as well. He can take
Speaker 2: that kind of His cardilage doesn't go what are you doing?
Speaker 3: That's like if I get out of a car too fast, ode.
Speaker 2: I'm lucky if I have cartilage in places still, And
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, hey, there's cartage between those bones. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: So the cops they searched the stolen Mercedes he left behind,
Speaker 2: the one smashed into the tree. Right, the police they
Speaker 2: find this treasure trove of evidence. There's stolen cell phones,
Speaker 2: there's credit cards, also importantly a digital camera. Oh. On
Speaker 2: this digital camera, the cops find pictures of Colt. He's
Speaker 2: got like selfies. Yeah. Oh, he's also got pictures of
Speaker 2: his campsite. Right, and the cops they're able to locate
Speaker 2: this campsite, and they go out to the campsite. What
Speaker 2: do they find? They find his dog. You see, he
Speaker 2: had a dog and he left him at the campsite.
Speaker 2: So he wasn't very far away. And then the cops
Speaker 2: they find this pooch named Melanie, right, and the cops
Speaker 2: they take they take Melanie the dog. This changes the
Speaker 2: complexion of Colt's crime sprees. Yeah, I'm serious. The dude
Speaker 2: goes full on john Wick.
Speaker 3: Is this say? This is like this is his origins?
Speaker 2: Yes? I mean he doesn't go full john he goes
Speaker 2: like ten percent john Wick because there's no guns, but
Speaker 2: also like anger about the dog. That's all there.
Speaker 3: I feel it. So he writes, I can see that.
Speaker 2: Oh like you would, you would totally identify with this
Speaker 2: kid's Like, well, here, I'll just tell you. So he
Speaker 2: writes a note, sends it to his mother because he's
Speaker 2: still in contact with her all the time. So the
Speaker 2: note is about the cops grabbing Melanie. It reads, quote,
Speaker 2: the cops want a play, huh it's war? Tell them that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so Colt coming for the cops this point, Elizabeth. He's
Speaker 2: still on the lamb right, and he's also convicted. So anyway,
Speaker 2: the locals are worried and scared about this guy. Think
Speaker 2: maybe he's armed, maybe he's dangerous, you know. Sightings of
Speaker 2: Colt get reported all across the island. He's here, he's there,
Speaker 2: he's everywhere. Right. The locals starts to stock up on
Speaker 2: firearms and ammo right, and I'm talking mostly like the
Speaker 2: vacation own people, not the local one.
Speaker 3: Imagine fears he's never no.
Speaker 2: Never done anyone hard, violent, No, not at all. So
Speaker 2: Colt realizes if he stays on this island, he will
Speaker 2: eventually be caught again. So he can only hide out
Speaker 2: in the forest for so long. So he tries a
Speaker 2: new tech. What's he do, Elizabeth, I have no idea
Speaker 2: steals a boat. Got to get off the island smart,
Speaker 2: So he makes a run for it to a new island,
Speaker 2: a place called Orcas Island. Right like, it goes like
Speaker 2: I'm found by an orca, Like this is Orcas Island.
Speaker 3: When they attack boats, Oh my god, yes, oh my god.
Speaker 3: That makes me so happy.
Speaker 4: I get like high reading articles about how killer whales
Speaker 4: after yachts.
Speaker 2: Totally destroy them, and you're like, oh, tell me more.
Speaker 2: It's like how I feel about elephants when they go
Speaker 2: and take it after people. Yeah, side with elephants. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I figured they must have done something wrong. I've never
Speaker 2: seen an elephant just decide I'm gonna go after them.
Speaker 3: Their total sweet peas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they have long memories from what I understand.
Speaker 3: So and he never forgets.
Speaker 2: He ditches his boat when he gets over to Orcas
Speaker 2: Island and he treks into the woods because you know,
Speaker 2: that's what he knows. He camps out, finds a nice
Speaker 2: spot in the woods near a local airport.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Now, Colet always love planes as a boy. He'd watch
Speaker 2: them fly overhead. He could identify them by their cillorette.
Speaker 3: I would imagine there's like seaplanes all over the place.
Speaker 2: Exactly, a lot of puddle jumpers, all sorts of planes. Interesting,
Speaker 2: a lot of also small aircraft for people flying in
Speaker 2: from air. A lot of these islands on the airfields.
Speaker 3: So that's like how they get around soup.
Speaker 2: So his mother, she would recall, like to the press
Speaker 2: about how her son as a boy, just loved planes
Speaker 2: right he he could. She would buy him balsa wood models,
Speaker 2: like the old school balcewood models, and he would build those.
Speaker 2: He also she bought the books about planes, she told
Speaker 2: one reporter, and I quote from the time he was
Speaker 2: a little kid. He could look up at any plane
Speaker 2: in the sky and tell you what make it was
Speaker 2: what engine it had when it was built, and weather
Speaker 2: was a good safe one.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Now, at school he would spend his time obviously playing
Speaker 2: Microsoft flight Simulator, right, So if you checked his MySpace page,
Speaker 2: you'd find he listed his occupation as pilot, which reminded
Speaker 2: me of that guy you told me about on Reddit
Speaker 2: the the a t a guy who was like, uh,
Speaker 2: his girlfriend got mad because he told people at her
Speaker 2: work dinner party he was a pilot.
Speaker 4: He was introducing himself as pilot. Yeah, her work functions.
Speaker 4: And the truth of the matter is he just he'd
Speaker 4: never flown. He had flight simulator going in like a
Speaker 4: special room in his house.
Speaker 2: Like ten thousand hours on flight.
Speaker 4: Simulator exactly, and it was just like but he would
Speaker 4: he would brag about it, but not about being just
Speaker 4: sitting in his chair.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and it went on from there.
Speaker 2: But well, that's how I kept picturing this kid. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, yeah, here we go, another flight simulator pilot.
Speaker 2: So there he is camping in the forest. It surrounds
Speaker 2: his local airport. He's watching the small planes land, he's
Speaker 2: watching them take off, he's clocking the workers. He figures
Speaker 2: out the schedules, the rhythms, and he starts to plan
Speaker 2: his next move. What do you think he did, Elizabeth, Well,
Speaker 2: that's right, he stole the plane, my man, amazing.
Speaker 3: So he knows from flight simulator.
Speaker 4: It's got to be brutal to be like hanging out
Speaker 4: in the woods and seeing this freedom flying over you.
Speaker 3: They can go wherever they want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you need to go off an island. People
Speaker 2: are after you. Yeah, you're like, you're a kid. You're like,
Speaker 2: I can do that.
Speaker 3: I totally do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you think he managed to like go out and probably? Well,
Speaker 2: rather me tell you about, Elizabeth, I'd like you to
Speaker 2: close your eyes. I like you to picture it. It's
Speaker 2: a November on a place called Orchis Island in the
Speaker 2: San Juan Chain of Islands. They're off of the coast
Speaker 2: of Washington State. It's right around sundown, and you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: are the little angel on the shoulder of a wayward boy.
Speaker 2: You are both there at the stand of trees at
Speaker 2: the edge of the woods, and the boy gazes at
Speaker 2: an airfield. You tell him not to do what you
Speaker 2: hear him thinking. But the little devil on his other
Speaker 2: shoulder scoffs and laugh and he says, you know you
Speaker 2: want to do it, do it now. Without warning, the
Speaker 2: teenage boy hops over the deer fence runs towards the airfield.
Speaker 2: You hang on to his shoulder as he runs for
Speaker 2: a Cessna one eight two sky lane. It's a simple
Speaker 2: plane to fly. It's a sort of plane that beginners
Speaker 2: get comfortable flying alone. It's the VW Bug of airplanes.
Speaker 2: Now there's one sitting alone in a hangar, and the
Speaker 2: kid runs right for that hanger. He's a big boy.
Speaker 2: This kid is six foot five wa His six foot
Speaker 2: five frame lumbers across the grass and he makes it
Speaker 2: to the hangar. You try to reason with the boy,
Speaker 2: tell him you've had your fun, time to go home,
Speaker 2: But he listens to the little devil instead, and he
Speaker 2: picks the lock door. The door swings open. The teen
Speaker 2: sneaks in. He finds keys hanging on a hook. You
Speaker 2: plead with him to stop what he's doing. Someone could
Speaker 2: get hurt. You're something of a worry word, Elizabeth, and
Speaker 2: he ignores you again. Instead, he climbs into the Cessna,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't start it up right away. That's a
Speaker 2: relief for you. Instead, he finds the manual. He reads it.
Speaker 2: You're glad that he's checking the section on autopilot safety first,
Speaker 2: you think. Plus, you know he has played a ton
Speaker 2: of Microsoft flight simulator in the game. The Cessna one
Speaker 2: eighty two is the dashboard you learned to fly on.
Speaker 2: Now he's sitting behind the real deal. He studies the manual,
Speaker 2: compares the real dashboard to what he knows to see
Speaker 2: if it's all the same gauge's same controls. By sunrise,
Speaker 2: he feels he's got it. He spent the entire night studying,
Speaker 2: So now he hops out, goes to open the roll
Speaker 2: top door of the hanger. You suggest to him, you've
Speaker 2: had your fun, now time to go, But the little
Speaker 2: devil on his shoulders forget her. You deserve to have
Speaker 2: some fun now cold agrees with him. Now not you,
Speaker 2: So he grabs the planes tobar and uses the full
Speaker 2: leverage of a six foot five frame two hundred pounds
Speaker 2: to push the plane out of the hangar. You beg
Speaker 2: and plead for him to stop. On the tarmac. He
Speaker 2: hops into the stolen Cessna, fires up that two hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty five horspower fuel injected engine. You argue, you plead,
Speaker 2: you guilt, but no one is listening to you. Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Colt points the nose of the plane south. He taxis
Speaker 2: down the runway. This is it, it's really happening. At
Speaker 2: the end of the runway. Is the ocean well, Puget sound.
Speaker 2: You tell Colt that he doesn't get his takeoff right,
Speaker 2: he's gonna be a bad please to crash. The devil's
Speaker 2: his go ahead. Colt pops the plane's toe breaks, He
Speaker 2: grabs the throttle pushes it forward. The propeller's plane engine
Speaker 2: roars to life. The aircraft starts to roll forward, quickly
Speaker 2: picking up speed. The airstrip is short. It's also thin.
Speaker 2: You argue, do not do this too late. Now hold on, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: because the plane's about to roll right off the runway.
Speaker 2: Colt smashes down on the right rudder pedal. That counteracts
Speaker 2: the pull of the propeller's spin and the torquet generates.
Speaker 2: Quick thinking, you say to him, you remind cult that
Speaker 2: he could still turn off the plane engine and get out.
Speaker 2: The plane continues to pick up speed. The propeller chops
Speaker 2: at the air The plane reaches sixty miles an hour.
Speaker 2: That's the magic number. You feel the plane lift up
Speaker 2: from the runway and it takes off you see the
Speaker 2: sun is also lifting up over the eastern horizon, cresting
Speaker 2: over Mount Baker, which is blanketed in snow. It's like
Speaker 2: dyllic Don's first leg. Colt banks the Sestana towards the
Speaker 2: rising sun, Elizabeth. Nothing for you to do now but
Speaker 2: enjoy the view. Colt turns again heads south. He can
Speaker 2: see his home from here, well, his home, Camano Island.
Speaker 2: Colt continues flying south by southeast over the forested woods
Speaker 2: of mainland western Washington. Next you see Seattle, which looks
Speaker 2: beautiful from the air. Look, there's Pike Street Market, you
Speaker 2: hear yourself saying, Colt flying at the ceiling of ten
Speaker 2: thousand feet, close enough to see the faces on the
Speaker 2: ground still, and also it's early so the city is
Speaker 2: mostly asleep. Once he flies past Seattle, he aims for
Speaker 2: the next SPECS thing he can see from a distance,
Speaker 2: a snow capped Mount Rainier. You comment on how pretty
Speaker 2: it looks in the morning light. The little devilt imitate you.
Speaker 2: Oh help, Then he laughs, and again Colt follows his advice.
Speaker 2: He follows the Cascade Mountain range heading east. You tell
Speaker 2: him mountains make for very choppy air. Read turbulence. You
Speaker 2: try to remind cult that he's in a tiny propeller
Speaker 2: plane flying for the first time ever. Also, it's November,
Speaker 2: storm grade winds. They come ripping off the Cascade Mountains.
Speaker 2: Soon enough, the Cessna gets hit by a storm force wind.
Speaker 2: The Little Devil laughs gleefully as the tiny plane is
Speaker 2: cast about in the sky like some small ship and
Speaker 2: storm toss seas. Only these seas are the sky. One
Speaker 2: wind verse hits the Cessna like an invisible dump truck,
Speaker 2: smashing into the Blaine. The Sesta bucks and falls out
Speaker 2: in the sky. Somehow, Colt recovers all his hours of
Speaker 2: flight simulator and indeed paid off. The Little Devil urges
Speaker 2: them on, good, come on, go down. Meanwhile, you're giving up,
Speaker 2: arguing you've just closed your eyes. Colt is in heaven
Speaker 2: for a few hours. He enjoys this rare view. Finally,
Speaker 2: at eleven am, the fuel gate says fun time over.
Speaker 2: At this point, three hundred miles from where he took off,
Speaker 2: somewhere over Yakama Indian Reservation. You suggest, oh, look a
Speaker 2: rural airfields to land, but the Little Devil says, no.
Speaker 2: Crash the plane and Colt listens to him. Kid Colt
Speaker 2: tries to spot a soft place to crash land. He
Speaker 2: points the nose of the propeller plane at the earth.
Speaker 2: You scream, you hit it. As the plane plummets and
Speaker 2: the ground rushes up, you race for impact and count
Speaker 2: down with cold five. Four, three, You shake your fist
Speaker 2: at the little devil on the Colt's shoulder. Two one.
Speaker 2: The plane slams into the ground. It skips over the
Speaker 2: dirt like a stone on a pond, and it slams
Speaker 2: back to the earth. The propeller and the ancient chew
Speaker 2: up dirt and prairie until finally the plane stops slide,
Speaker 2: fighting over tall scrub grass and comes to a gentle stop.
Speaker 2: The little Devil looks over at you and says, see,
Speaker 2: I told you he could do it. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: is Elizabeth. I know it's a low bar, but in
Speaker 2: my book, any crash landing you can walk away from
Speaker 2: is a successful way.
Speaker 3: We say so a couple a couple of notes on this.
Speaker 3: I like that. I think you wrote yourself into the
Speaker 3: picture it as the devil.
Speaker 2: What what are you talking about his shoulder? I don't
Speaker 2: know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: And to find out that he's six foot five to
Speaker 4: tell you that it's got to be really tough.
Speaker 2: He's got this.
Speaker 4: Giant man body that most men will never achieve at
Speaker 4: that height.
Speaker 3: And like, but he's got the brain of a kid
Speaker 3: and a brain that you know.
Speaker 2: Has the impulse control of a kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like his you know, so you have this,
Speaker 4: it's got to be so difficult to navigate the world
Speaker 4: that way. God, and the fact that he could study
Speaker 4: a manual all night, and so he has.
Speaker 2: These skills really really smart.
Speaker 4: And it's like I hate when people say, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: he could have they could have just directed him purely
Speaker 4: to that kind of education. What they need to do
Speaker 4: is understand the soft skills of education of what he
Speaker 4: was lacking to be able to apply that, you know,
Speaker 4: to whatever.
Speaker 2: He needed a holistic approach as opposed to just a
Speaker 2: skills based approachable. He needs to do this test and
Speaker 2: showed this person he passed this test and go on
Speaker 2: to make money.
Speaker 4: Right exactly, help the boy become When you said he
Speaker 4: was six or five, all of a sudden, I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh poor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wait until you're seeing him in motion. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, well respect him a man cult right now?
Speaker 2: His mother she hears about what her son has done,
Speaker 2: because the reporters come to send her as soon as
Speaker 2: this gets reported, and she says, and I quote, evidently
Speaker 2: he didn't need flight school. So not your typical motherly response,
Speaker 2: I'll admit, but we already knew that about her now
Speaker 2: his mother, Pamela. She also told reporters who came a
Speaker 2: call and quote, I'm not saying it's right, but if
Speaker 2: he flew those planes, I'm very, very proud of him.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So at least his mom's proud of him.
Speaker 2: And tell him that, you know, to the TV media,
Speaker 2: and he's catching it apparently. Anyway, She also hopes her
Speaker 2: son will start wearing a parachute whenever he steals a plane.
Speaker 2: She is, after all, a mother still anyway. Meanwhile, back
Speaker 2: to the crash site, the plane's total course, house cold.
Speaker 2: He's okay, he survives, totally, totally fine. He walks away unharmed.
Speaker 2: When the police arrived, no colt, he's gone. Only thing
Speaker 2: that they find is his vomit on the dashboard of
Speaker 2: the plane. So apparently he hit and then puked. Right
Speaker 2: the puke just tells the cops what cult ate for breakfast.
Speaker 2: That's the only clues they have to go on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he might have gotten like a.
Speaker 2: Like a concussion. Yeah, I'd be willing to bet you
Speaker 2: got a concussion. Maybe even like a bruise on his
Speaker 2: face or broken nose, something like that cracks some webs.
Speaker 2: But he was not, like he was able to walk
Speaker 2: away and didn't need immediately go to the hospital.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, And there's also no signs of which way he
Speaker 2: disappeared back into the woods. Gone, Yeah, so.
Speaker 3: And he's three hundred miles away from home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So at this point, Colt is like he's
Speaker 2: basically Bigfoot with a stolen plane. You know, he's just
Speaker 2: he goes disappears into the woods. The only difference between
Speaker 2: him at Big Food is the stolen plane. So what
Speaker 2: does Colt do now that he's officially a pilot?
Speaker 3: Steals another point?
Speaker 2: No, he steals a car. There's a trick question. He
Speaker 2: drives that until he gets he runs out of gas.
Speaker 2: And then why does he do that? Because rather than
Speaker 2: hit a gas station where there are cameras which the
Speaker 2: police can use to track down his movement, he ditches
Speaker 2: the stolen car, then steals a new one. He's literally,
Speaker 2: as you've said, going through life like Grand Theft Auto
Speaker 2: the Cult version. Now it's spring of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2: At this point, Cult is still successfully on the run,
Speaker 2: so he does what other older criminals do. He goes
Speaker 2: back home. He returns to Kamlo Islands and for the
Speaker 2: next two months he lays low, really well kind of.
Speaker 2: He hits a few homes and then disappears. And then
Speaker 2: in June of two thousand and nine, he's feeling bored
Speaker 2: of a or maybe a little rambunctious, and Colt breaks
Speaker 2: into a police car. He steals a rifle and a
Speaker 2: box of AMMO. Then he melts back in the woods.
Speaker 2: So now it's Bigfoot with a rifle. Summertime passes, September
Speaker 2: rolls around. He decides to time to island top again.
Speaker 2: So he steals now a quarter of a million dollar
Speaker 2: luxury boat. He's still a two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars luxury boat.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Takes off for a place called Friday Harbor over in
Speaker 2: San Juan Island. Once he's there, he cases that island
Speaker 2: and what did he do? He gets an itch to
Speaker 2: go flying. Oh my gosh, so second little break can
Speaker 2: after this, I will come back and tell you how
Speaker 2: my man cold gets back into the skies. Were back, Elizabeth, Hi,
Speaker 2: how you dig him? A man?
Speaker 3: This is so good.
Speaker 2: See why it's my new favorite anti hero and what
Speaker 2: I relate to him so much? He is for me
Speaker 2: The road untaken? Yeah, the path are passing. The wood
Speaker 2: diverged and I took the one less interesting. So anyway,
Speaker 2: my man called, he's at this point. I told you
Speaker 2: he's got an itch to go flying again. He's like
Speaker 2: land of the last plane, So do this again? So
Speaker 2: and he also needs to get off an island. So
Speaker 2: he goes down and he finds a local airfield because
Speaker 2: I remember I told all these islands have these small
Speaker 2: little airfields. He finds that one he spots another plane,
Speaker 2: not assessmin of this time. This time it's a Serrus
Speaker 2: SR twenty two. That's a plane he fancies. It's a
Speaker 2: nice plane, right, So he waits for his opportunity. Then
Speaker 2: he sneaks onto the airfield, climbs into the cockpit, starts
Speaker 2: the engine, taxis down the runway, and he steals away
Speaker 2: into the sky. Colt still hasn't learned how to fly
Speaker 2: a plane, though, other than the manual he read right,
Speaker 2: So again he has to crash it. He knows basically
Speaker 2: how to handle a plane in the sky, but he
Speaker 2: can't get them down out of the sky, right, so
Speaker 2: crashes it on Orches Island. Back to Orchis Island right now,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Orchis Island is home to four thousand full time residents, okay,
Speaker 2: mini part time residents. The island boasts all kinds of
Speaker 2: vacation homes for real money, like Microsoft millionaires, Boeing contractors.
Speaker 2: Most famous resident Gary Larson of the Far Side fame. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: so Colt he survives plane crash onto Gary Larson's island,
Speaker 2: and the crash planned it sends up this cloud of smoke, right,
Speaker 2: and I've got all these rich people on this island.
Speaker 2: So the authorities come out to investigate. They think maybe
Speaker 2: Gary Larson crashes helicopter or whatever. I don't know. They discover,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is plane crash, but no pilot.
Speaker 2: They put two and two together and it's cold. So
Speaker 2: the police spring into action, right. They erect roadblocks, they
Speaker 2: close the docks, the marine is They alert the local
Speaker 2: airfield to be on high alert. We're gonna catch this.
Speaker 2: Sob this time, I don't know how he does it.
Speaker 2: I'm impressed by the fact he does. But somehow cult
Speaker 2: evades the roadblocks, the closed harbor, the marina. Somehow he
Speaker 2: sneaks down to the water line and he steals a boat.
Speaker 2: And he races away in a stolen speed boat. Where
Speaker 2: to go now, Canada. He's getting international with it, all right,
Speaker 2: So he jumps the all the cops on his tail
Speaker 2: and he makes it over the watery border to Canada.
Speaker 2: Now he keeps playing his one man game of cult GTA.
Speaker 2: He breaks into homes, he commits more burglaries, he steals
Speaker 2: some cars, he ditches them, steals more cars. Ben he
Speaker 2: finds in himself in the place called Creston, Canada, A
Speaker 2: little place now. I guess he gets tired of snacking
Speaker 2: on poutine because he quickly dips back down the lower
Speaker 2: forty eight. He steals a car, drives back across the
Speaker 2: border into a town called Bonner's Ferry in Idaho. Now
Speaker 2: he goes to the local airport because he loves those,
Speaker 2: and he promptly steals a Cessna one eighty two, his
Speaker 2: third stolen plane. He flies this one same as the others,
Speaker 2: really well in the sky. He flies two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty miles west back to Washington and then in a
Speaker 2: town called Granite Falls, he successfully crash lands the plane.
Speaker 2: By this point, the national news media is loving this
Speaker 2: crazy kids kid who just keeps stealing planes and crashing
Speaker 2: him and walking away. Yeah, so my man called, He's
Speaker 2: stolen planes, crashed them, survive, stolen expensive boats, escape the US,
Speaker 2: escape the fbis, he's stolen cars. He just left them,
Speaker 2: dotting the landscape like he's a vehicular Johnny Appleseed right. Naturally,
Speaker 2: all the usual suspects begin to profit off this kid's story. CNN, Fox,
Speaker 2: CBS News, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Today's Show on NBC,
Speaker 2: all of them. They send out the reporters to document
Speaker 2: his crime spreees. They all start to profit off his escapades.
Speaker 2: As his stories keep going viral, go international. He's now
Speaker 2: got a Facebook fan page. It starts popping off, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: There are kids in Australia who were wearing T shirts
Speaker 2: that say fly Colt and fly You're kidding. Kids in
Speaker 2: Italian City's wearing shirts to say Mama tried for cult.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: He was out an international folk hero for teens.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: So cult is at this point laying low on the island.
Speaker 2: He still needs to eat, still a grown boys six
Speaker 2: foot five, so you know he's hungry. His hunger cannot
Speaker 2: be denied, so he breaks into a grocery store steals
Speaker 2: food and some money. He also leaves footprints intentionally, he
Speaker 2: leaves chalk outlined footprints of his bare feet. What see,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, yes, he's bigfoot with a stolen plane.
Speaker 2: But they don't they like the press somehow misses that
Speaker 2: he's like doing like a bigfoot thing. But they instead
Speaker 2: they refer to this chalk outlined feet and they give
Speaker 2: him the nickname the barefoot bandit. Okay, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's got good alliteration. But clearly the man is doing
Speaker 2: a barefoot thing in the bigfoot area and he goes
Speaker 2: out to the woods.
Speaker 4: I mean, come on, do you imagine growing up like
Speaker 4: bigfoot banded. How much the bigfoot bandits legs must have
Speaker 4: ached to be young and six.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, his bones are just stretching it. You can
Speaker 2: watch them go like a plant. Yeah yeah, huh. So
Speaker 2: at this point, my big foot banded with a stolen plane, right,
Speaker 2: the press are all excited. But also I forgot to
Speaker 2: tell you when he did that he left the chalk
Speaker 2: outline of his own feet in the store. He also
Speaker 2: left a note for the cops. Really three letters, see
Speaker 2: dash y, a exclamation point, see you.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: The media loves this. They brought on this once again.
Speaker 2: The cops and the authorities are furious. They're embarrassed. They're
Speaker 2: made to look like fools by the teenage boy Clever.
Speaker 2: So what do they do, well, the local cops they
Speaker 2: called the FBI back. Can you guys try again.
Speaker 3: Bail state police they could.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, they've they've been doing that, but it's Washington
Speaker 2: State Police. Like Oregon. Washington don't really have like the
Speaker 2: same levels a place to say California, We're used like
Speaker 2: CHP or like sometimes I don't message John. In Oregon,
Speaker 2: this is like as few as eight highway patrol on
Speaker 2: patrol at any one time, eight officers in the entire state.
Speaker 3: Whole state.
Speaker 2: Wow, blow me away, anyway. So at this point they
Speaker 2: call the FBI back in. They also call Homeland Security. Yes,
Speaker 2: the federal alphabet agents starts swarming over island, upsetting all
Speaker 2: the well heeled locals. This is not why they came
Speaker 2: to live in and out of the way island. Elizabeth. Yeah,
Speaker 2: at this point it's May. At the end of the month,
Speaker 2: cops discover a new note and one hundred dollars bill
Speaker 2: taped to the door of a vet clinic. The note is,
Speaker 2: of course from Colt, and I quote drove by, adds
Speaker 2: some extra cash. Please use this money for the care
Speaker 2: of animals Colton Harris Moore Aka it's a barefoot bandit.
Speaker 3: Oh Colton.
Speaker 2: Yes, so he's leaving money at that to take care of.
Speaker 3: Animals, all in the name of Melanie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, telling you it is. That's his motivation. That's where
Speaker 2: he flips and twists and turns and everything becomes like
Speaker 2: the war. So that same day he goes down to
Speaker 2: the docks. He finds a super expensive racing boat and
Speaker 2: he likes it, so he steals it. Boom, he takes
Speaker 2: off to Oregon. Now, my favorite part, Elizabeth, is how
Speaker 2: he calls his attorney from this now stolen go fast boat. Yes,
Speaker 2: the man's got an attorney and he's got a phone.
Speaker 2: So what is he to want to talk about. He's
Speaker 2: arranging his negotiated handover to the Feds. No, no, he's not.
Speaker 2: Is he negotiating the movie rights for his life story? Yes?
Speaker 2: Yes he is. Wait, he wants a lawyer to ask
Speaker 2: for top dollar for any potential movie to be made
Speaker 2: about him, his life and his crimes. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: of course. Then he goes. He hides out again. Soon enough,
Speaker 2: he grows bored, so Colt steals a car, drives to
Speaker 2: yanked In, South Dakota. Yankton Wood. That's a town that
Speaker 2: should be fel familiar to the fans of the show Deadwood,
Speaker 2: the Yankedon people. Yeah right, So Yankton, that's where we are, Yankton,
Speaker 2: South Dakota. And Colt sets up shop, starts casing some
Speaker 2: houses he plans to break into. He finds this one
Speaker 2: fitting house, breaks in, makes himself at home, makes himself
Speaker 2: a hot meal. He also takes off his dirty clothes
Speaker 2: and he does a load of laundry. Then he goes
Speaker 2: and he takes a hot shower. You know, he may
Speaker 2: have broken in, but essentially he's just stolen a home
Speaker 2: for himself. That's what he's done, right, But the house
Speaker 2: he selected is not a vacation home. It looks like
Speaker 2: a vacation home, it's not a vacation home. Elizabeth, the
Speaker 2: family just happened to be away. Ironically, on vacation.
Speaker 3: Oh no.
Speaker 2: So at three am, the family returns home. The Clark
Speaker 2: family comes back from their vacation. When mister Clark walks
Speaker 2: into the family home, he senses something just ain't right.
Speaker 2: You know what that is? Lights are off, that's not it.
Speaker 2: The weird thing is the TV is on. He's like,
Speaker 2: I know, I did not leave the TV on.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's a super observer like you yeah, yeah, Now I
Speaker 2: would have noticed that Colt left the remainder of his
Speaker 2: hot meal on the kitchen counter. That's what we're to
Speaker 2: cut my eyes. So mister Clark, from these two clues,
Speaker 2: he's able to determine there's someone in the house. He
Speaker 2: tells his family stay out, and he searches the family home.
Speaker 2: He creeps through the hallways looking for this interloper. In
Speaker 2: the hallway, he notices at the end the bathroom lights
Speaker 2: on the door is a jar. Oh boy, Colt, here's
Speaker 2: footsteps approach. But he doesn't jump out in surprise and
Speaker 2: attack mister Clark. No, instead, he jumps out and just
Speaker 2: runs past him. So mister Clark gets his six foot
Speaker 2: five guy running back him at three am or three
Speaker 2: thirty probably at this point, and then he hears the
Speaker 2: guy rush through his house and he recognizes the sound.
Speaker 2: He hears him run down into the basement, and then
Speaker 2: he also recognizes, wait, I know where he is. He
Speaker 2: rushes and locks the door. He's trapped Colt in his basement.
Speaker 2: Then he phones the police. The cops rush out to
Speaker 2: the house. You know exactly who this guy is. They're geeked, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Yea Colt trapped in a basement with no escape. They
Speaker 2: have him finally, make fun of us. The cops arrive
Speaker 2: at the Clark home and they enter the premises. They
Speaker 2: search the home. They go down to the basement, flashlights drawn.
Speaker 2: Just imagine shafts of light peering through the dark. And
Speaker 2: what do they find, Elizabeth, don't guess. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: Colt is gone. He grabbed his laundry from the washing machine.
Speaker 2: That's why he ran down to the basement. He grabbed
Speaker 2: his other stuff, and then he wriggled out of a
Speaker 2: basement window, squeezed out gone. He maybe six foot five,
Speaker 2: he still weighs two hundred pounds. He's a thin, big boy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he doesn't run far though. He runs to a
Speaker 2: neighbor's house. There he breaks in find some car, Keys
Speaker 2: steals the neighbor's car, drives off my cot man. Colt
Speaker 2: gets away yet again.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: The local cops and the FEDS now they know that
Speaker 2: they've got this kid, Colt, and and he's gonna break
Speaker 2: a run for a local airfield, right like that's his
Speaker 2: way or he can't get to a boat. He can't
Speaker 2: be this isn't an island. So they say watch the airport, right,
Speaker 2: this high alert works. No plane gets stolen, and then
Speaker 2: caution wears off. Days pass. One week later, on the
Speaker 2: fourth of July, when everyone's totally distracted, Colt sneaks onto
Speaker 2: the airfield. Get this, Elizabeth, he steals a plane.
Speaker 4: He's gonna have great views of fireworks, totally amazing expensive
Speaker 4: Cessma this time, not like on a small training plane
Speaker 4: like the first couple.
Speaker 2: This time he steals a Cessna four hundred. It's worth
Speaker 2: seven hundred thousand dollars. Oh dang, Yeah, Colt steals the
Speaker 2: plane because you know he plans to fly further than
Speaker 2: he's ever flown before. This is a real like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can fly to New York in this plane. Oh,
Speaker 2: his plan to fly to Cuba. So he taxes he
Speaker 2: his newly stolen plane down the runway. He climbs back
Speaker 2: into the sky, up there among the clouds, where he
Speaker 2: likes it. He flies across the US. He flies all
Speaker 2: the way to the Atlantic. Then he turns and heads
Speaker 2: for Cuba. But he's not a trained pilot, so he
Speaker 2: misjudges one thing, his fuel. Somewhere over the Atlantic, he
Speaker 2: realizes he's almost out of fuel and he will not
Speaker 2: make it to Cuba. So what does he do now, Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: He spots the Bahamas on the horizon. He flies for
Speaker 2: the islands and he makes it barely to the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: where he crash lands. The seven hundred thousand dollars beauty
Speaker 2: of a plane plays destroyed, but my man Cold walks
Speaker 2: away unharmed. Cold Boom another successful landing. Colt walks to
Speaker 2: a fishing village where he promptly breaks into local stores
Speaker 2: and steals some food. He's hungry again, so then he's
Speaker 2: still hungry, so he breaks into some restaurants and then
Speaker 2: gets some more, throwing teenage boy, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: Always starving? So in the news coverage of Cold story,
Speaker 2: there's this one woman who I caught who was like
Speaker 2: once kind of cult and I kind of wanted to
Speaker 2: include her because she gives us a little perspective on him.
Speaker 2: She cared for him when he was a she's a
Speaker 2: foster mother, but she cared for him like a foster mother.
Speaker 2: So she sees this at risk youth and she's part
Speaker 2: of a program helping kids, and she tries to help
Speaker 2: this wayward boy. And she spoke with the press at
Speaker 2: this around this time when people start going, why is
Speaker 2: this kid doing it? She someone finds her and she says, well,
Speaker 2: she believes and I quote Colt didn't intend for all
Speaker 2: this to happen. It's gotten away from him now, right,
Speaker 2: She hadn't met him when he was fourteen, before he
Speaker 2: started stealing planes, when he was just doing court ordered
Speaker 2: community service, right, that kind of stuff. He's so one
Speaker 2: day he arrives and she's running the court ordered community
Speaker 2: service in a park, cleaning up. He arrives without any lunch.
Speaker 2: She notices it. She recalls, quote, I fed him, gave
Speaker 2: him water, and he was just so very grateful. Now
Speaker 2: she also noticed it. He was a hard worker. He
Speaker 2: was smart, as I've pointed out, he knew a quote
Speaker 2: ridiculous amount of knowledge of local plants, and he was
Speaker 2: kind hearted, much like her, and she said, and I quote,
Speaker 2: he really struck me as a good hearted kid who'd
Speaker 2: always been looked at with negative expectations. It didn't have
Speaker 2: a lot of motivation to feel good about his life,
Speaker 2: yet when given an opportunity, I mean, he just worked
Speaker 2: his butt off. How is it possible that all these
Speaker 2: groups of people and systems in place miss children like
Speaker 2: this over and over again? So yeah, she also recalled,
Speaker 2: by the way, when Colt was done with his community service,
Speaker 2: he biked back ten miles to this park where she worked,
Speaker 2: and he met her and it was like just kind
Speaker 2: of checking in. She remembers how, and I quote, he
Speaker 2: was kind of shy, handed me three small bags and
Speaker 2: just said here. I told him we had a very
Speaker 2: small budget for new plants, and he'd gone out and
Speaker 2: hand harvested seeds from local flowers that he thought would
Speaker 2: grow well in the park. I said, oh my god,
Speaker 2: thank you so much. And he's like, yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: turned around and said thank you for being so nice
Speaker 2: to me. I was literally teary eyed.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And I told you all that because I wanted you
Speaker 2: to keep that in mind as I keep calling him
Speaker 2: my man Clt. Right, he's tea, he's a teenage kid.
Speaker 2: He's on the run. And I know, yes, he's crashed
Speaker 2: a stolen seven hundred thousand dollars plan that he stole
Speaker 2: into the Bahamas, Right, but he made it to the Bahamas, right,
Speaker 2: I'm still on his side. Yeah, So next stop, Cuba.
Speaker 2: Do you think he makes it?
Speaker 3: Does he pull a tupac? No?
Speaker 2: After the plane crash is discovered, because remember he's sending
Speaker 2: up smoke signals. Basically, local authorities track down the stolen
Speaker 2: plane and they tell the US authorities, Oh, this is
Speaker 2: one of yours. They tell the Bahamian authorities to hold
Speaker 2: the pilot, right, and they say, if you catch him,
Speaker 2: hold them. We'll be there as soon as we can
Speaker 2: get there. The locals they put up wanted posters of
Speaker 2: this kid, Colt Harris More because that's what the FEDS
Speaker 2: tell them. Yeah. Knowing that the heat is now on.
Speaker 2: When he sees one of his wanted posters, Colt does
Speaker 2: what he does best. He cuts and runs, don't hesitate. Run,
Speaker 2: So he steals another go fast boat and he takes
Speaker 2: off for Harbor Island, assuming this is one of the
Speaker 2: bigger islands in the Bahamas, assuming that'll be a bigger,
Speaker 2: better place for him to hide out. Okay, he makes it.
Speaker 2: He docks the boat, sneaks down to a luxury hotel
Speaker 2: to like hide out, let the coolick, you know, let
Speaker 2: the heat blow over, maybe find maybe it'll quick score somewhere.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Instead, security guards spot him, They recognize, you know, belong here.
Speaker 2: They give chase. Colt tries to run, but at this
Speaker 2: point he's grabbed a gun somewhere, so he turns back,
Speaker 2: flashes a gun. The secure guards see that if they
Speaker 2: turn they run away. They go and they call the cops. Right,
Speaker 2: we're gonna need backup. Cops mobilize. Also local federal agents,
Speaker 2: also the military. Everybody on this Bahamian island are all
Speaker 2: searching for this kid, all of them armed right, hunting
Speaker 2: my man Colt. At this point is July eleventh, twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Colt is desperate to get to Cuba. So what does
Speaker 2: he do? Steals another go fast boat. This is his
Speaker 2: last chance. Yes, so he's get spotted though it gets
Speaker 2: like three point thirty in the morning. When he steals it.
Speaker 2: The cops they go and they rush and fire up
Speaker 2: their own boats. So now the chase is offat chase.
Speaker 2: Colt leads them to the open ocean. He's gonna make
Speaker 2: a run for it, headed to Cuba. I man, he
Speaker 2: thinks that's Cuba, so then I hope it's not Dominican Republic. Anyway,
Speaker 2: He's on the open ocean, right, colt speedboat is way
Speaker 2: faster than the cops watercraft. In the dark of the night,
Speaker 2: they're on the ocean, racing to Cuba. Colt escapes the
Speaker 2: Bahamian cops, but his luck finally runs out in the
Speaker 2: dark of night, his speedboat slams into a sandbar. That's
Speaker 2: how the Bahamian cops able to catch up to him.
Speaker 2: And when this is where it gets wild, to make
Speaker 2: sure he can't escape again, what do they do. They
Speaker 2: pull out those guns and just start firing on them.
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh, yeah, they fire on the speedboat, but
Speaker 2: not at the kid. They shoot out the engines so
Speaker 2: that way he can't They they basically disabled the boat,
Speaker 2: so Cold is now captured, taken into custody the Behaming authorities.
Speaker 2: They parade their capture in a walk of shame on
Speaker 2: the island. Yeah, tropical purp walk right, Yeah, so the
Speaker 2: authorities they only have Cold on one solitary charge though
Speaker 2: failure to present his passport, So he gets fined three
Speaker 2: hundred dollars. And they're about to like let him go,
Speaker 2: and the US are like, you have to hold him.
Speaker 2: He will be right there. Take the two days. So
Speaker 2: they get there, they arrive, they take the kid into
Speaker 2: custody where he gets transported to Miami. The Americans they
Speaker 2: got plenty of charges, they got to got charge. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so they throw sixty seven felony charges at Colt that
Speaker 2: would have resulted in maybe twenty thirty years in federal prison.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The total for all of his damage and the
Speaker 2: cost of the man hunt, they're saying was one point
Speaker 2: four million dollars. That's what he now owes in restitution
Speaker 2: to victims and to the state. Now, remember I told
Speaker 2: you he called his lawyer from his go fast vote
Speaker 2: to negotiate the sale of his life story to Hollywood. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well he was on something there. He sells his life
Speaker 2: rights to twentieth century Fox for exactly one point four
Speaker 2: million dollars because he cannot profit from his crimes, but
Speaker 2: he can send it all into restitution. Sce gets exactly
Speaker 2: that in his trial. The cult's the lawyer he pleads
Speaker 2: for lniency. He's like, he's a kid. Look at him, right,
Speaker 2: They sight his upbringing, his home, his abusive parents, the
Speaker 2: bully against school. The judge and the jury. They listen
Speaker 2: to all this, right, and they feel bad, just like
Speaker 2: you and I do. From a man cult. The judge
Speaker 2: even says, and I quote, I think this case is
Speaker 2: a tragedy but also a triumph with the human spirit.
Speaker 2: I sympathized with the defendant for his terrible upbringing that
Speaker 2: he had. It was tragedy that he had to steal
Speaker 2: food to endure an alcoholic an abusive mother. But nevertheless,
Speaker 2: the sentence of six years and I wish him well.
Speaker 2: Six years boom yeah, just like that, he's sentenced for
Speaker 2: a few heads off to federal prison. He's since been released.
Speaker 2: Six years isn't bad considering what he was possible looking at.
Speaker 2: So there you go, Elizabeth, the story of the Barefoot
Speaker 2: Bandit or aka the Bigfoot Bandit. I prefer it. He's out,
Speaker 2: he got released.
Speaker 3: Wow, I hope he's doing well.
Speaker 2: What's a ridiculous takeaway there? You know?
Speaker 4: I think that like early childhood intervention is so key, yes,
Speaker 4: you know, and it's age zero, simple stuff that, like
Speaker 4: just the attention nutrition, you know, definitely, yes, that makes
Speaker 4: such a huge difference that you know, if a kid's hungry,
Speaker 4: they can't pay attention, and they're not.
Speaker 3: Their brain doesn't develop in the way it should.
Speaker 4: This kid like so smart and clever, you know, it's
Speaker 4: just what a waste, My god, it's your takeaway.
Speaker 2: I just related to him very much, like all the
Speaker 2: whole time, like I you know me, I love planes.
Speaker 2: I would have always wanted to steal a plane. I
Speaker 2: think the only thing is that the difference is our
Speaker 2: relationship store a mother. The reason why would would have
Speaker 2: killed my mother? Yeah, and so I didn't do it
Speaker 2: for that reason, whereas he's like, you know, yeah, she's
Speaker 2: already taken care of that. I don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about that. So I think that's what it is. It's
Speaker 2: just like the the he couldn't be guilted or whatever, exchange,
Speaker 2: whatever it is that they kept me. But the bond
Speaker 2: between you know, a boy and his mother the only
Speaker 2: thing they kept me from doing more serious crimes. Yeah wow, yeah,
Speaker 2: So there you go. Thanks mom, I know, right, So
Speaker 2: thank your mother, call your grandmother and thank your mother.
Speaker 2: So you're in the mood for a talkback. I am
Speaker 2: after that one. D can you favor this one? Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I love get.
Speaker 5: I downloaded the iHeart app specifically to tell you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 5: how disappointed I am that the joke of you not
Speaker 5: watching TV is over. I don't like Scandal era Elizabeth.
Speaker 5: I giggled so hard at the jokes that you didn't
Speaker 5: watch any TV but somehow knew about all TV. I
Speaker 5: miss it, but still love you. Thanks for the show.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I'm sorry to disappoint I really am,
Speaker 4: but I had to stand in my truth.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this much. She doesn't listen to radio
Speaker 2: doesn't work well as always.
Speaker 4: Uh.
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Speaker 2: producer d thanks for listening. We will catch you next time.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by the Harley Davidson Iron Wing to
Speaker 2: Our Colt Harris Moore, Mister Dave Houston, and starring Analys
Speaker 2: Rucker as Judith. Research is by amateur pilots Marissa Brown
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