Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Flying Barefoot
16 Plays2 months ago
In this episode, we explore the infamous and unbelievable story of Colton Harris-Moore, better known as the Barefoot Bandit. We dive into the evergreens with young Colton and see how a turbulent childhood helped shape him into a modern day Huck Finn with a taste for escape. From break ins to boat thefts to daring plane heists, we follow Colton on a wild ride all the way to his present day life. So buckle up because this is one flight you won’t forget.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to abuse, trauma, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
🎧 Enjoy the episode? Follow, share, and leave a review ! It helps more curious minds find us!
💌 Got theories or personal cult encounters? Email us at BTevergreens@gmail.com or DM on Instagram @BTEPodcast
Full source list and supplemental materials are available on our website at Beneaththeevergreens.com.
💜 If You or Someone You Know Is Experiencing Domestic Violence
You are not alone, and what’s happening is not your fault. Help is available, confidentially and without judgment.
In the United States:
📞 National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
💬 Text “START” to 88788
🌐 Live chat available at www.thehotline.org
Outside the U.S.:
🌍 Visit https://www.hotpeachpages.net for an international directory of shelters and support services by country.
🌍 https://www.womensaid.org.uk (UK)
🌍 https://www.dvconnect.org (Australia)
If you’re unable to safely make a call, consider reaching out to a trusted friend, healthcare provider, teacher, or local shelter. Many organizations can assist with emergency housing, safety planning, legal support, and emotional care.
You deserve to be safe, believed, and supported.
💜If you’re struggling with mental illness, you are not alone
Episodes that touch on fear, mystery, or the unknown can sometimes stir up difficult feelings. If you’re dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, or any other mental health challenge, please know there is support available and people who want to help.
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (United States):
Call or text 988 any time for free, confidential support from trained counselors. - Crisis Text Line:
Text HOME to 741741 to chat with a crisis counselor 24/7. - NAMI HelpLine (National Alliance on Mental Illness):
Call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or text “HelpLine” to 62640 for guidance, information, and emotional support. - The Trevor Project (for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults):
Call 1-866-488-7386, text START to 678678, or use the online chat. - Outside the U.S.:
Visit www.iasp.info/crisis-centres to find mental health crisis lines in your area.
You deserve care, understanding, and support. Reaching out is a sign of strength.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Hosts' Banter
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist, we're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens.
00:00:20
Speaker
Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight. lock your doors and join us beneath the evergreens.
00:00:57
Speaker
We're in the double digits now. Did you know that? Woohoo! Episode 10. ten see Wait. I was going to say it in Spanish, but apparently I'm inept. Did you almost say siete?
00:01:10
Speaker
I did. That's because, you know that six, seven shit that's going around right now? Barely. Who's i about that life? and so they go around and they go, six, seven. And so to annoy them, I say, siete.
00:01:26
Speaker
And it really it really ruins the vibe. but You're such a great mom. I had a conversation with some friends not too long ago. All of us are trying to figure out what 6'7 meant and what it is. We're all about the same age. don't have kids. And doesn't it mean nothing? It's nothing, right? Yeah, it means nothing. It was a song. And yeah, it's just nothing. It's nonsense. I've never felt more old in my life.
00:01:53
Speaker
Do you want to hear something
TikTok Trends and Generational Frustrations
00:01:54
Speaker
else that's crazy? Maybe. Maybe. yeah So on the ride home today, my child and their friend are in the car and they pull up the song and they it's they start playing it. i'm like, why is this familiar?
00:02:05
Speaker
And then it's like, you left your you left your fish at home. And then they're like, that's right. You left your fish at home. That's right. Or like something along those lines. I'm like, this sounds so familiar. Where have I heard this before? And then it bashes into my head.
00:02:19
Speaker
People are doing TikTok dances to cadence songs that you sing in bootcamp. What? like Cadence, like you call cadence when you're marching and you like come up with silly songs to sing. So it's your dog was at home, you're left. And like when you say you're left, you hit your left foot. And then sometimes you'll like repeat back and be like, you're right. And then that should be your right foot.
00:02:40
Speaker
So literally kids are on the interwebs or the TikToks. Literally making up dances to cadences. And then the thing that really just chaps my hide, quite frankly, is when they're doing these dances, half of them are marching and the motherfuckers aren't even marching to the beat of the cadence.
00:03:04
Speaker
Like, if you're going to do this, like, do it right. It's really...
00:03:11
Speaker
It made me very upset. Like, irrationally upset for no reason. And this is how I know I'm definitely old, because there's no reason for that to to annoy me as much as it did. It seems like it's bringing back some memories that now maybe you don't want to remember.
00:03:25
Speaker
Trauma from boot camp. So, welcome to today's episode.
00:03:32
Speaker
What an intro. We're killing it.
Who is Colton Harris Moore?
00:03:34
Speaker
well but that indeed Welcome to episode to episode 10. It was a rough landing, but we're here. Today, I'm going to tell you about a mythical creature that lived in the woods.
00:03:44
Speaker
But this isn't going to be Bigfoot. This is the Barefoot Bandit. o so I'm so excited for this episode. So excited. Yes. It's and very interesting. i remember hearing about it, like reading it in the paper, like it's like i I did as a small child. And i remember hearing about a barefoot bandit and being like, this can't be a real story. like This has got to be like some kind of like book or something.
00:04:09
Speaker
I know. As I was researching, I'm actually kind of amazed by Colton Harris Moore, a.k.a. the barefoot bandit, because he really, he reminds me of like a Tom Sawyer or like a Huckleberry Finn.
00:04:24
Speaker
Where he's able to do things that you shouldn't be able to do or like things you would never think to do, especially as a child. And i don't know. He's just he's a he's a cool kid.
00:04:37
Speaker
Let's just crack into it. You ready? Let's do it. Let's do it. OK, so I'm going to first go into kind of the the early years, the making of the ghost, if you will. Colton Harris Moore, a.k.a. the Barefoot Bandit, was born March 1991.
00:04:51
Speaker
okay at the Skagit Valley Hospital so that's up in i believe that's Island County Kamano Island area okay so his parents were Pamela Kohler and Gordon Moore which I don't understand the Harris more because Pamela Kohler and then Gordon more oh cut that part oh I remember why
00:05:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:17
Speaker
He was born to parents, Pamela Kohler and go Gordon Moore. Gordon struggled a lot with drugs and alcohol and was just not a well-rounded person, particularly to be around a toddler. And so one day at a family barbecue, him and Pamela got into disagreement and he disappeared never to return.
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh, yes. And this was when Colton was about two. Oh, Poor kid. So Colton's father abandon like abandons essentially the family after this family barbecue fiasco, which leaves Pamela to raise Colton alone. And she chooses to raise him on Camino Island. They because Pamela is raising him all alone and she doesn't get child support or anything like that. She has to raise Colton in a, you know, not the greatest of environments. In fact, they live in a single wide trailer that has, you know, a leaking roof. There's a tarp that's supposed to keep out the weather. But of course, we're in Washington state. So wind, rain, it's not really helping the situation. So the trailer is pretty much deteriorating before their eyes.
Colton's Early Life and Survival Instincts
00:06:24
Speaker
They were in chronic. Yeah. Where is kamano Island in relation to like the San Juans? Yeah, so it's for for all of those that would like to know, it is sandwiched essentially between, would you say, mainland Washington by Stanwood and Warm Beach and Oak Harbor would be island. It's like right in between those two. So it's in Port Susan, Skagit Bay area. Yeah, it's one of those islands that has a bridge connecting it. you can actually drive, drive onto it. You don't need a ferry or anything. Exactly. Exactly.
00:07:00
Speaker
Thank you for that. So while living on Camino Island, you know, they were in chronic poverty, inconsistent utility bills. So sometimes they would have power. Sometimes they would have water.
00:07:10
Speaker
Sometimes they didn't. The household was also very inable unstable because Pamela, unfortunately, well, allegedly had a very... bad drinking problem. And in fact, when she would get too drunk, she would get mad at Colton and then just go around and break all of his toys. Oh.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah. She did eventually marry a another Yeah.
00:07:41
Speaker
but he was also a drug addict and died when colton was ten for i couldn't find the exact reason but i it is believed to be linked to this drug addiction So, you know, all of this goes to say that Colton didn't have a very nice life growing up. And in fact, it was so bad that Colton began running away by age seven. And this kind of like breaks my heart.
00:08:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. A seven year old is like running away into the woods. And not only is he like running away into the woods, but he is essentially becoming a survivalist. He has nowhere else to go. So he, instead of, you know, going to a family's house or, or reaching out for help, he has to go into the woods and, and,
00:08:22
Speaker
There he learned to build shelters and forage and track movement of animals so that he could find food. And he would stay there for for many, many days. this This part just breaks. like His upbringing really just breaks my heart because I feel like Colton, a common thread throughout this whole story is that Colton is not a dumb individual. He's very intelligent. And if he would have been given...
00:08:46
Speaker
just a little bit of affection and, or even just someone to notice him, I feel like this story would not exist. And we would be talking about something totally different for this particular child. So as, as I said, he's running into the woods, he's learning to build so shelters, learning how to forage. But even with that, it's just not enough to, for food. Cause I mean, Camino Island is not a very big place. Yes. There's a lot of woods, but another thing that Camino Island has is vacation homes. Lots and lots of vacation homes.
00:09:17
Speaker
In fact, I did find a statistic. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but 30% of Camino Island is actually filled with vacation homes, which is pretty substantial. yeah and so Colton found a way to figure out which homes were vacation homes and would break into those homes for specifically food and blankets, batteries, things that he can use out in the woods.
00:09:41
Speaker
during this time between seven 14, CPS made several visits to the home on suspicion of neglect and abuse. His neighbors actually called the cops multiple times on the family just because they heard a lot of screaming. And there, there was one place, one point in particular where Colton was strangled by one of the adults in the house. It wasn't, oh my god who and had like marks on his neck. And when the cops were,
00:10:11
Speaker
Interviewing his mother, allegedly she was more mad at Colton for calling the police than she was at what happened to her son. So that's just kind of a glimpse in. what happened to to Colton. When he went to school, though, when you know he wasn't in the woods and he was forced to go to school, his teachers described him as very polite, very clever, but always tired. In fact, when he'd show up to school, most of the time he would put his head down on the desk and sleep. And there was one teacher in particular that didn't like this. So she would consistently call on him when she thought he was sleeping and he would recite word for word what she just said.
00:10:51
Speaker
Oh my God. So he's not dumb. Like he's super very smart. Yeah. But because of his home life, he eventually dropped out. And when he dropped out again, he, he, he,
00:11:07
Speaker
took shelter in the woods. So he became very hypervigilant. He also honed some very significant bushcraft skills. So being able to create lean-tos, find water, stay warm in winter. He also had a very great intuitive sense for escape. So how to break into a home and then escape the home.
00:11:27
Speaker
And he also developed during this time, like a very severe distrust of adults. but while he was doing all of this, like he's 14, he's still breaking into vacation homes. He's essentially just trying to survive at this point. I will call out, he wasn't always a troublemaker. He would oftentimes be, if he he saw an
Criminal Mentorship and Teenage Fugitivity
00:11:50
Speaker
elderly couple needing cross the street, he was that kid that would go up and help them cross the street. Also, he would go out of his way to help his elderly neighbors around their houses, carry groceries in, things like that. He was known for fixing any bird feeders in the neighborhood, making sure the birds had food.
00:12:07
Speaker
If he saw a lost dog poster or a lost cat poster, he would go out of his way to find the animal and return it to the owners. So just overall, good kid. Mm-hmm. Well, I think the good comes with the bad, right? yeah Then when he was 12, he actually was caught breaking into his elementary school. And when he was caught, he was sentenced to some community service time. And part of his community service was, you know, picking up trash on the side of the road when he did show up. to the Yeah.
00:12:35
Speaker
So what did he break into the school for? just destructive. So I allegedly while he was there, he like burnt a hole in the window. He took some laptops. He also took some like blank CDs, little kid stuff, but not this. Yeah.
00:12:53
Speaker
I don't feel like I have too much empathy. I should be like, no bad. But like at the same time, i mean, if I'm living in the woods, I might do the same thing. I don't know. So he was sentenced to community service for this. While he was in community service, he showed up multiple times without any food and they would work for long periods of the day. And this lady was like, this kid's too little to be like showing up without lunch. So she actually made him a sandwich. One day and like just actually, you know, cared a little bit and talk to him.
00:13:23
Speaker
And he was like, after the community service ended, he went up to her was like, hey, thank you so much for being nice. Nice to me. I really appreciate it And she's like, yes. And then he showed up a couple of days later with bags full of flowers that he harvested himself because they were trying to like beautify this one park. And that's where he was picking up the garbage. showed up with handpicked flowers. Like he went out in the woods and found native plants, put them in bags, handed them to the lady and was like, Hey, thank you so much for being nice to me. Here are some flowers that you can use to like make this park pretty what it with an i like Kind of really good stuff.
00:13:59
Speaker
So, he He continues kind of down this path though of like breaking and entering. and And while he's in this kind of whirlwind, he's still 14, 15, 16. He meets this man named Harley Davidson. And he truly is a man. He's like 18, 19. So he's a little bit older than Colton.
00:14:17
Speaker
And this is when Colton is introduced to Harley Davidson's four rules of breaking and entering. Would you like to hear these four rules? I would love to. All right. Rule one, don't rob somebody's house if you know who lives there, which is smart.
00:14:35
Speaker
Yeah. Also diabolical. Two, don't turn on any lights. Lights bring suspicion and you don't want suspicion, especially if you're breaking into a vacant house.
00:14:47
Speaker
Third, if you're, if you get spotted, run, don't risk it. Just run. And number four, which is my personal favorite, and possibly the most diabolical is never feel guilty. Don't second guess. It is what it is. Don't feel guilty, which is, i don't know, wild.
00:15:09
Speaker
So, yeah. yeah So after he got, you know, this rule book, this is when you know, Colton really starts to begin his his spree of robberies. This is, i think, a turning point where we go from like breaking and entering to get food and and do silly things to he's kind of doing this as her career at this point. So on July 14th, 2006, the court issued a warrant when Colton failed to show for a mandatory hearing hearing in relation to these breaking and enterings.
00:15:41
Speaker
And at 15 years old, he vanished into the woods and became an actual fugitive. He set up camps deep in the forest. So he knew all of the forests on Camino Island.
00:15:52
Speaker
And he specifically found areas that had really high grass or like blackberry bushes and would somehow find like this little tunnel in there. And then in the middle of this big patch of grass or whatever he found, he would stomp down a little area to sleep in. And he would do crazy stuff like have rainwater catching systems for fresh water and elevate his food basket. So like raccoons and coyotes wouldn't get into it. He would have like these tarped insulated pits. So he would like dig a hole.
00:16:24
Speaker
Apparently if you dig a hole like deep enough, I think it's like four feet down is what I saw. it will constantly be at like 50 degrees or whatever the earth's temperature is there. And then if you build like a lean to shelter over it, it keeps the heat within the system. So you don't have, you're not freezing all of the time. He built this for himself multiple different times.
00:16:46
Speaker
He also, you know, had some stolen laptops, unfortunate, but he would, uh, also have a generator to be able to power these laptops. So he's kind of a very smart kid. I would not know how to do this when I was 15.
00:17:02
Speaker
Nor would I want to stay in the woods overnight by myself, quite frankly. so And then he started during this time when he was 15 and on the run, he started to teach himself something very new and something that you know really didn't go well for him. He so he started teaching himself identity set identity theft. So he would break from- The theft is not a joke, Jessie.
00:17:23
Speaker
It's not a joke. wo What is that from? The office. identity if does now do jim that is my favorite character how do i not know that something is wrong with me identity theft is not a joke so teaching himself identity theft he would break into those vacation homes and he would steal credit cards that were left there and he would go online using their wi-fi or plugging it hardwiring into their system uh wi-fi networks and
00:17:57
Speaker
He would order items to be shipped to the vacation house. He would track the parcel coming to the vacation home. And then when it showed up, he would go to the home, get the package, and then return the credit card.
00:18:12
Speaker
Whoa. So again, really diabolical for sure, but very smart. Very, very smart. Because I mean, who's going to notice like a $20 charge or a $60 charge? I mean, those who check their accounts regularly, of course, but you're going to miss that for a little bit. If you're not, if you do it like once a month, you're like, oh, it's a $60 charge, whatever. Especially if it's like delivered to your house, like you're going like, oh, did did i did I accidentally order that? Like what what happened? Yeah. And so he did this a lot though. He started doing it more and more and more. and
00:18:44
Speaker
kind of leveling up and what he was buying was specifically tactical gear. So like military GPS systems, things of that nature. But eventually after six months of being on the run, he is captured. So what now
The Infamous Barefoot Bandit Escapades
00:18:59
Speaker
we're February 9th, 2007, he gets captured. He's facing 23 charges.
00:19:05
Speaker
pleads guilty to three of those and he's sentenced to three years at the green Hill school in Chehalis, Washington. Have you ever driven past that?
00:19:15
Speaker
i don't I don't know. I've driven like through Chehalis and out and around it, but I don't know if I've ever seen it. It's a very sad-looking school. It's like a huge brick building with this massive fenced yard, and there's like one basketball court, and that's about it. It it looks really sad when you're driving by it.
00:19:32
Speaker
Oh. But then while he was at this school, something surprising actually happened. He became a model inmate. He was reported as being one of the more respectful of all of the kids that were there. He scored extremely high on all of his tests. And in fact, he became a tutor for a lot of the kids that were there. If they were struggling with their homework, he would actually help them out with that.
00:19:58
Speaker
he also had an enormous appetite for knowledge just in general, specifically aviation knowledge. He was obsessed with planes. Uh, he, you know, had a whole bunch of books. He would collect these books. He he had a whole bunch of drawings all over his cell that were just focused on airplanes.
00:20:17
Speaker
And in fact, he was such a model inmate that he was able to be transferred to the Griffin home in Renton, Washington, which is more of like a halfway house where it's not quite, well, you're definitely not locked up behind bars, but it is locked down somewhat. Like you're still in jail, but it's not maximum security or anything like that.
00:20:40
Speaker
And unfortunately, this was maybe not the right move because he is an escape artist. And the moment he got the chance, he ran. So April 29th, 2008, he slipped out of an unlocked window in from the Griffin home. He slipped out of the window and then he stole a car and he returned to Camino Island. And as soon as he returned to Camino Island, he immediately started a new string of burglaries and local authorities escalated. So the the local authorities were kind of pissed. They're like, wait, who let this kid back out? And why is he running wild again?
00:21:16
Speaker
And so there, the whole Island is on alert, especially when these new string of burglaries start picking back up. And then one night it's July 2008. And we're Camano Island and and we're in camao island And sheriff's deputies spot this black Mercedes driving crazy erratic on the, on the road.
00:21:38
Speaker
They go and pursue. He's apparently allegedly going like over a hundred miles an hour. And I don't know if you've been on Camino Island, but there's not a ton of roads that you can, I mean, there's, it is country over there. So there's a lot of, there's not a lot of cars, but I feel like the road infrastructure is not meant for a hundred miles an hour.
00:21:56
Speaker
So anyways, he Colton is inside of this car. He's barefoot and he's racing down the freeway. He, Gets to a point where he wants to, you know, really turn into an action movie. So the car is flying down the road at over a hundred miles an hour. He does this crazy turn with a car. The tires start screeching. Oh my God. He opens the door while the car is turning. Jump out of the vehicle.
00:22:24
Speaker
Let's the car keep going. Does this weird tumble thing flips off the cops and takes off into the woods. Loki, that's pretty badass. That is the most badass. to which I say only a child could do this. If I try to do that, first of all, I'll be scared.
00:22:40
Speaker
Second of all, I'm breaking something. Thirdly, only a teenager has that kind of confidence. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember doing some like crazy like cliff, like climbing up rock wall, like cliff sides and without any harnesses or anything like that when I was a kid. And but I was like, it's fine. I'm going to be fine. Everything's great. Like only a teenager has this kind of confidence. It's crazy to me. So the Mercedes continuing on, it smashes into a thick forest. The car gets totaled, to which I say, if I was the owner, I would be pissed.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yes. That is an expensive car. Absolutely. Yes. So when the police start searching the abandoned vehicle, they find stolen credit cards, stolen phoneam phones, and...
00:23:21
Speaker
an infamous digital camera. So I'm sure everyone is aware, if you know anything about the Barefoot Bandit and Colton, there's this one particular photo where he's like lying on a backpack in the woods. There's woods around him and he's kind of lying down. He took a selfie above his head.
00:23:39
Speaker
That is actually the picture that is on this digital camera. That is what, essentially he took it himself and now they're using it as his bolo picture of like be on the lookout for this kid. And this is when really Colton's infamy takes off because not only was he barefoot, but then he ran into the woods and they still can't find him.
00:24:01
Speaker
There's no trace. He just disappeared into the, into the air. And so while he's, you know, this is July. So from July until November, there's no sign of Colton at all, except for the fact that there's this string of burglaries and in all of it, where there is camera footage, there's,
00:24:21
Speaker
There's this man who's 6'5". By the way, Colton is 6'5". At this point. I didn't realize he was that tall. Oh, my God. 6'5", 200 pounds. You would see this figure break in to an area. They would have no... He would always have a backpack, and he would have no shoes every single time.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so we're fast-forwarding to November 12, 2008, and all of sudden, there's a Cessna 182 out of Orcas Island, there's a c sesna one eighty two out of orchi island that is stolen and no one can figure out why. they're, they're like, who would steal an airplane? How would someone steal an airplane? And, and then all of a sudden they find it, it's been crash landed on tribal land over, on one of the islands. And they find out because of throw up on the windscreen that actually Colton
00:25:17
Speaker
was the one that stole it. And they're like how, how could he have done this? So they look back at the tapes and find out that Colton actually broke into the, the hangar early in the evening, spent all night reading the airplane's manual.
00:25:31
Speaker
Then he decided because of he's played hours and hours worth of Microsoft Flight Simulator. And now he's read the entire manual that he can actually fly a plane. Oh, my God. and So after reading this manual manual, he takes the plane, gets it up in the air and and he ended up flying directly into a storm.
00:25:53
Speaker
And while he's in the storm, he kind of like loses, you know, his altitude starts going crazy. The wind's bucketing around because the Cessna is not a huge, it's not a huge plane. It's, it's pretty small. And so when weather gets bad, it's can throw things off a little bit. So that is why he ended up crash landing. The, there was a bent propeller, the wrecked landing gears, the pilot's doors jammed.
00:26:16
Speaker
But also what's interesting is in the cockpit, there's bare footprints all over the place. Whoa. And then again, there's vomit smeared across the windshield, likely from the G force of him falling. He, or he hit his head and potentially has a concussion, but you know, he escapes again.
00:26:38
Speaker
They can't find him, even though he crashed the plane, which is crazy. so it's September 11th, 2009. And another aircraft is stolen out of the San Juan islands and lands successfully successfully.
00:26:50
Speaker
Oh, on Orcas Island public runway, which is kind of crazy because he's, this is his second time that he's flown a plane. The first time he crash landed the second time he just lands it perfectly. I feel like that should be illegal. I don't know.
00:27:07
Speaker
I feel like if he hadn't ran into the storm, he probably would have been able to navigate the first one pretty well too. Yeah. that's what we Shout out to flight simulator. Right.
00:27:18
Speaker
Is that that's crazy? Yeah. So to get away from investigators at this point because he knows, hey, I'm on an island, I'm kind of unfamiliar with this, he immediately goes from the hangar where he landed the plane and goes and steals a boat and sails to Point Roberts.
00:27:35
Speaker
Where's Point Roberts? Point Roberts is a geographical oddity.
00:27:40
Speaker
I don't fucking know where that's at.
00:27:45
Speaker
oh my god
00:27:50
Speaker
That was so helpful, Jesse. Thank you so much. Yeah, anytime. That's like the really close to Vancouver. Well, like per can it's like This is where he runs to Canada.
00:28:05
Speaker
Gotcha. So it's like oh the you like the Washington part, of like but it's like connected to Canada. That's crazy. So he had, yeah. So he, so he, he steals the boat. He sails to point Roberts and then he starts his crime spree in Canada. And in fact, in one of the documentaries I watched on this, it was called fly Colton fly. It was a very interesting documentary. never have I seen a documentary that blends animation with an actor. That's also portraying the character and human interviews.
00:28:40
Speaker
It was very interesting. It was cool. so in, after he lands in point Roberts, he's going through Canada and he's doing all this crazy stuff. He runs into this band. This band is stranded on the side of the road. Their car broke down. Colton randomly appears out of the woods and,
00:28:59
Speaker
Which, why are, this is only a man would do this. Anyway, so Colton walks up to this man who's trying to fix his car. He says, hey, I'll help you fix your car if you can give me a ride. and the guy's like, sure.
00:29:10
Speaker
Totally makes sense. They fix the car. They put him in the back of their van, which again, only a man. And they drive off into the sunset.
00:29:21
Speaker
they end up smoking a doobie, with Colton. sounds like this might've been his first time ever smoking because he was pretty out of it, but they, as they're driving, they get to a patch where like one of the lanes is closed for construction and the other one's open. So they kind of have to stop and they notice while they're stopped and these construction workers are walking around, he's Colton is like down in the seats, like trying to hide.
00:29:46
Speaker
And they're like, oh, are you an escaped convict? Like, what's going on here? kind of just like joking about it And he actually is. And he's like, no, no way, man. And so they end up taking the kid to their house. He stays there for a couple of weeks with them, a couple of days with them. I couldn't get a firm timeline, but nonetheless
Public Notoriety and Maternal Pride
00:30:05
Speaker
stayed with them. And then he eventually just kind of disappears hello back into the woods of Canada.
00:30:12
Speaker
And this takes us to September 2009, when another plane is stolen This time out of bonnie Bonner's Ferry, Idaho.
00:30:26
Speaker
It's another Cessna. So somehow he got from Canada down into... Idaho. Usually he would steal cars. This was like a known fact about him. He would steal cars and drive them until they ran out of gas. Once they ran out of gas, he would steal another car and then just continue on his way. And in fact, him doing this, he was able to travel all throughout Washington, Oregon, down into California, through Nevada, back up all the way to Idaho, through the Dakotas. Like he traveled around as a fugitive very, very well.
00:30:59
Speaker
But in after he stole the plane from Idaho, he crashed it because it ran out of fuel in Granite Falls, Washington. He crashed it into a really dense forest area. And again, there's bare footprints all inside of the cabin. all of There was survival supplies strewn about in the cockpit as well.
00:31:22
Speaker
And they linked it pretty fast to Colton's excavates. And when the police reached out and reporters reached out to his mom, Pam, Colton's mom, Pam, she said, and I quote, I'm proud of him.
00:31:36
Speaker
I was going to send him to flight school, but now I don't need to. And then when someone asked her what she would be buying her son for Christmas, she said, and I quote, I think I would buy him a bulletproof vest. I want him to come home.
00:31:50
Speaker
Holy shit. Isn't that kind of crazy? I can imagine. it Kind of fucked up saying that. Yeah. So then we go to plane number four that's stolen. And this is in February 10th, 2010.
00:32:02
Speaker
All throughout this time, he's burglarizing all sorts of stores from stores to banks to, vacation homes. He's just breaking, kind of breaking in everywhere.
00:32:13
Speaker
But it's February 10th, 2010. And another Cessna is not a Cessna. An SR-22 is stolen out of Anacortes and is landed on Orcas Island. Again, he lands this plane perfectly.
00:32:27
Speaker
This time, professional pilots admit he has techniques that are, quote, shockingly good. And to celebrate his victory with landing this plane, this is where the infamous chalk drawings, I don't know if you've heard, if you've seen these. Oh, yes.
00:32:41
Speaker
Yeah, he breaks into a grocery store called Homegrown Groceries, and he steals a whole bunch of cash. But in this... particular robbery. He took down all of the cameras and essentially drowned them in a sink that's in the grocery store and then put big footprints, like actual big footprints, from everywhere he went. And then at the end, right before he was about to leave, he put the the letters C-YA. So C-YA. And that is where his infamy really took off. And this is where people start to actually make t-shirts of him that say like,
Capture and Legal Consequences
00:33:21
Speaker
fly Colton fly, uh, there was one, that got really, really rich off having the picture that Colton took from the Mercedes Benz, uh, crash. They took that picture, put it on a shirt and it said, mama tried, on the run estimated 2008. Like,
00:33:40
Speaker
crazy stuff. He had a big fan club. then we go to July, 2010. Again, he's, you know, breaking in everywhere, but he seals his fifth plane. seals it from Bloomington, Indiana. So this kid's making, he's moving, he's moving from here to there to everywhere. And the goal for him, he stated is to get to Cuba.
00:34:01
Speaker
So on his way to Cuba, I don't know why he wants to go to Cuba. But from Indiana, he's trying to go to Cuba. He runs out of gas.
00:34:12
Speaker
But while he's about to run out of gas, he sees some other islands. Those islands happen to be the Bahamas. oh And so he runs out of fuel. And as he runs out of fuel, he crash lands onto an island. And again, he vomits and splatters vomit all over the windscreen. This time he actually did hit his head pretty pretty hard And... they think that he definitely got a concussion. In fact, they, the crash could have killed him if he wasn't such an excellent pilot. He was able to, to land the back down first and then the front, but he was going pretty fast. So it's, he's pretty lucky that he's still alive.
00:34:53
Speaker
So after he lands on this Island, he decides the particular one that he, he landed on, So he landed on great Abaco Island.
00:35:03
Speaker
This one is too small. So he goes to the other Island that's in the Bahamas and he starts his escapades of, you know, robbering robbing, robbing stores while, you know, it's closed. In fact, he broke into one place and just cooked himself a hot meal.
00:35:19
Speaker
and then left. There was also the story of this woman who owned a internet cafe and he stayed in the internet cafe and she said he was such a nice and polite and sweet man. She fed him for multiple days on sandwiches and he always said thank you and was just really respectful. But one night I think he got bored and decided that he wanted to get caught because he took a 13 foot whaler So that's like a type of boat, but it's more of like a dinghy. do you know what a dinghy is?
00:35:51
Speaker
think so, yeah. that small It's a small boat. You usually like trail it behind a sailboat so that you have, in case something happens, you have a way to get to land or whatever. So he has this 13-foot whaler. He zooms into one of the ports, starts circling around, and is saying, I'm the barefoot bandit. I'm Colton. I'm the barefoot bandit. You call the police. Call the police. And the guys are like, what?
00:36:16
Speaker
Meanwhile, there's a reward out for his arrest. Like the FBI is after him. Like all these people are after him. There's a $10,000 reward. And he's, you know, being a jackass, quite honestly, zooms out of the Harbor. And the guys that he was screaming at were like, well, bet let's try to, let's try to get them. And so they follow after him. Apparently some guns were drawn on both sides. Colton also has a gun. They have guns. Somehow he's able to get away from them.
00:36:43
Speaker
Gets away from him. They pull up right behind him at the marina that he, he got to, he runs away. Unfortunately, he runs directly into a security guard. It's like, stop, stop. He's like, no way. He runs into the bushes again because you know, when something works for you, you got to just keep doing it. But the security guard, unfortunately was just as fast as he is and is able to like locate the area.
00:37:07
Speaker
And so they, like green light, everybody to start looking for for him. They've got like the military for the Bahamas looking for him. They've got police. They've got anyone and everyone on the Island looking for this kid.
00:37:19
Speaker
He ends up getting out of the bushes, getting down to the water, going in the water, swimming back to the Marina. So he's able to evade them that way.
00:37:30
Speaker
Gets back to the Marina. Finally gets in a boat, he picks it like an incredible boat. It's super fast, it's faster than any of the boats that the police force has. And he takes off.
00:37:41
Speaker
And the only reason why they caught him is because he ran into a sandbar. Oh my gosh. And he, even though he was in the sandbar, he still had enough space that he probably could have gotten away if he broke free of the sandbar. So they had to shoot out the motor in order to actually catch him.
00:38:00
Speaker
They do finally grab him. And then this is where like a lot of news episodes showed the perp walk where he's like walking with his head down and he's all dressed up amongst all of these guards. But the only thing that they said about him was he was extremely polite. He was very respectful. He said, please. And thank you. He addressed everyone as yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Like very, very polite. Yeah.
00:38:25
Speaker
But after he's caught, you know, he is sent back to Florida, where he is then transferred to Washington State. So he was captured on July 11, 2010, not only after surviving a plane crash, but also through three different police chases, essentially. And he is sent to prison. he's He gets seven years at state present, which he spends at Stafford Creek in Aberdeen.
00:38:52
Speaker
During this time while he's going to trial, he does have to pay back a lot of people because, you know, he's crashed multiple planes. He's also stolen multiple boats. He's also crashed a couple cars. And so he decides that he's going to sell his, the rights to a movie about him to 20th Century Fox for
Life After Prison and Reflections
00:39:09
Speaker
$1.4 million. dollars Isn't there some, some like law or stipulation that you can't,
00:39:15
Speaker
profit off of correct oh so all of this money went to restitution which is that like the exact amount that he owed was 1.4 million which thank god those people got their money back but also if i was colton i'd be a little salty oh 100 yeah a little salty so so yeah he was in stafford creek detention center and fun fact I potentially have an inside story of what Colton's life was like while at Aberdeen, Stafford Creek.
00:39:49
Speaker
This is all alleged. I can't prove this. This is all hearsay, a third party, but apparently when he went into prison, he was very, very respectful. He was kind of a model inmate, but being prison, he got pigs on a lot.
00:40:03
Speaker
People would steal his shoes. People would beat him up all the time. People would constantly steal. i guess when you're in prison, you have this like ID card that you have to wear all the time. And if you get caught without it, you get in trouble. People would steal that and like flush it down the toilet and just, they were pretty awful to him. He did not have, by all accounts, he did not have a good time in prison.
00:40:23
Speaker
And unfortunately, while he was in prison, he, his mom got diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and Colton created a GoFundMe.
00:40:34
Speaker
to cross cryogenically preserve her body. Oh, that's not where I thought that was going to go at all. Yeah. So $230,000 so that he could preserve his, her her body. And, uh, unfortunately he only raised $2,170 and all of that got refunded because he didn't meet his goal. which $2,000 is nothing to scoff at. That's still a chunk of change, but yeah.
00:41:00
Speaker
to I guess I would just like to know the thought process. Why are we preserving the body? But I guess it is your mom. I probably would do the same thing if I couldn't see her pass. But ultimately, his mom dies May 17, 2016.
00:41:15
Speaker
Then he gets released. And after his release in September 2016, he starts another GoFundMe asking for $125,000 flight school
00:41:27
Speaker
legal Legal flight school. Formality at this point. He seems already know how to pilot a plane. I'm going to the man his license. It's fine. Unfortunately, again, he only raised $1,600. So, again, didn't quite make it it. But this time, it didn't go back to people. they it wasn't refunded. He actually got the money. But the court the court halts it, and the money goes into restitution.
00:41:53
Speaker
Oh, shit. And then Colton tweets after this quote, my dream has been crushed. So like I said, he was released in 2016. He worked, he was actually hired by his former attorney who said he was, you know, extremely smart. One of the most intelligent people that he's ever met. Also extremely polite, professional, just a great person to be around apparently. And in 2019, he deleted all of his social media. He completed his probation and kind of disappeared from life itself.
00:42:24
Speaker
From the public lie, which I totally get. I think if I was judged on what I did from ages 14 to, I mean, even 22, think no one would talk to me ever. So I get not wanting to be judged by whatever you did in your past. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
But when asked in one of his last interviews with KTTH radio, he said that flying felt like the one moment I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
00:42:53
Speaker
oh And he also said he would never, he doesn't think he'll ever have a normal life. And today, you know, his location's unknown. Essentially, he turned back into a ghost, retreated back into the woods, and no one has really heard from him since.
00:43:08
Speaker
And that is essentially the end of my story. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So in total, he stole, let me see. i want to go to this. told he's in total, he stole five planes and he stole eight to 10 boats.
00:43:25
Speaker
Damn. Through his excavates and millions of dollars worth of damage. And which is unfortunate, but he also, you know, he lived a life. He, he was on the run for over three years.
00:43:40
Speaker
Well, it's crazy to think that he's not that old right now. Like, he's in his mid-30s and he's just living his life, like, trying to stay under the radar. Yeah, he's younger than I am. What is he doing? one knows. He just disappeared. Which, to be honest, I would also disappear. I would change my name and I would go away. But I do feel like... I wish... Because apparently, when even when he was, like, a little kid, like, three, four, five, he showed us a great interest in planes and wanting to fly and being a pilot. but his home life was so crazy that I think
00:44:17
Speaker
he had He just had a really hard time. there i read some reports. I left this out because it kind of breaks my heart, but I'll just mention it here. Apparently, he used to get so frustrated sometimes and he didn't know how to let go of that aggression. He would literally smash his head against the wall.
00:44:32
Speaker
Oh, shit. and Like over and over and over. And like he got diagnosed with ADHD and like major depression as like a five-year-old. Oh my Isn't that so sad? Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
I feel like if someone would have like if CPS or or someone would have actually like really spent some time with this kid when he was younger, wouldn't be a pilot right now. Like i I have no doubt. Like he's so smart and it seems like he is very nice, but I just feel like he...
00:45:00
Speaker
You know, when no one cares about you or you feel like no one cares about you and – I mean, you're living by yourself in the forest for multiple days at seven years old. Like, how else is life going to be?
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah. Well, how how can you be diagnosed with depression that young and not and like CPS not like be notified in any capacity? Like, I feel like it's extremely abnormal for a five-year-old to be depressed.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah. I just – yeah, I feel like honestly, the system let him down hard because he's, I don't know. He's just so smart. And I, I don't know. I, it really broke my heart actually reading about him as a young kid. Cause I think I would hold a lot of anger if I were him, but I'm not him. So it was also not part of the story that you hear as much. Like I remember hearing about his story and it was always the things that he was doing, the people that he was stealing from the like almost like the fear around it, but it was never like,
00:45:57
Speaker
hey, this is why he's doing this kind of stuff. This is his backstory. I think that's what I like about this podcast and like doing the stories we're doing because I feel like in Ramtha, when I was doing her kind of background, it kind of shed some light onto why she does what she does now. And I feel like doing the background on this case in particular, it explains why he was so good at getting away and because he just had to do that to survive. So it's – yeah.
00:46:25
Speaker
It is what it is. And then he just escalated it. And then unfortunately he fell in with a crowd, that kid, Harley Davidson taught him some tricks. And, and I think it just escalated from there, but it is pretty remarkable that he was able to be on the run, especially when the FBI is tracking you, the sheriff's office, it's like all and, department of Homeland security, because he sold plane, like everyone was after him and no one could find him.
00:46:48
Speaker
It's like a catch me if you can. It really is. It really is. That's pretty. It's cool. That's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest.
00:46:59
Speaker
If you've loved the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time. Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us.
00:47:13
Speaker
Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors locked.