Friday, March 19, 2010

"Island-hopping teen burglar eludes police ???

Colton Harris-Moore, infamous teenage "barefoot bandit" and cult hero, are you back at it again?

The San Juan County sheriff didn't find you amusing Thursday as he dealt with your latest alleged crime, and television news cameras descended on Orcas Island for any tidbits about you.

Sheriff William Cumming knows somebody was taunting the cops by drawing in chalk 39 cartoonish footprints on the crime scene's red concrete floor, and writing near one of the doors, "C-YA!"

The owner of that Orcas Island grocery isn't laughing — he says he had more than $5,000 damage in computers kicked around, with one left soaking in a stainless tub.

Plus, $1,200 taken from four cash registers.

And for good measure, an entire blueberry cheesecake, plus produce and some unbaked meat-and-cheese-filled croissants.

And then there is the management company that takes care of a $600,000 Cirrus SR22 four-passenger single-engine plane that somebody stole that same night — flying it from Anacortes to the little airport at Orcas.

Harris-Moore, 18, is a suspect in several other similar plane thefts.

Whoever flew the expensive plane wasn't very experienced and upon landing the Cirrus went off the runway and into mud.

But, says Tim Lewis, owner of Corporate Air Center in Mount Vernon, it seems only the wheel fenders were damaged.

Lewis says the high-end plane "is a complex airplane that's easy to fly," so somebody without legit flying lessons could have flown it. Still, says Lewis, "You don't need much of a mistake to crash."

It was Kyle Ater, owner of the Homegrown Market & Gourmet Delicatessen in Orcas, who made the first report of the latest alleged Harris-Moore doings.

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter

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