A South Dakota homeowner went to Seattle in January 2012 to tell a federal judge what happened when his family came back from vacation. It was about three in the morning. Colton Harris-Moore was inside their house and threatened to shoot him. The man told the court that his four children had trouble sleeping in their own rooms or coming home after dark over the following year. [3]
Harris-Moore had already been arrested by then, and the pursuit that earned him the nickname Barefoot Bandit was over. The man from South Dakota was there to explain what was still going on at home. [3] [4]
A car with two pairs of glasses in it
Harris-Moore left juvenile custody in Renton, Washington, without permission in April 2008. The conduct he later admitted included a burglary at an Eastsound bank that left more than $1,000 in damage. He stole an airplane in Idaho and crashed it near Granite Falls, Washington. He later flew a stolen plane from Anacortes to Eastsound without a pilot’s certificate. In May 2010 he took a boat from Ilwaco, Washington, to Oregon. [1] [2] [3]
As the thefts spread east, the list of property got more specific than cars, boats and planes. A car taken in Idaho had two pairs of the owner’s eyeglasses in it. An aviation business in Iowa lost $450. The Indiana airport burglaries included headphones and a radio scanner. Those items appear in the account of what Harris-Moore admitted. They were part of what other people had to replace. [2]
The last plane
On July 4, 2010, Harris-Moore took an airplane from a hangar in Bloomington, Indiana, and flew it to the Bahamas. It ran out of fuel and crash landed off Abaco Island. He was arrested in the Bahamas days later. The plea agreement put the loss from that aircraft and its equipment at no less than $618,988. The total admitted loss across the conduct covered by the agreement was at least $1,409,438. [1] [2] [4]
What the plea did with the proceeds
Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to seven federal felonies in June 2011. Washington sentenced him to 87 months that December. The federal court imposed 78 months and three years of supervised release in January 2012. The federal term ran at the same time as the new state term and followed the older juvenile sentence. [1] [3]
The federal agreement directed any proceeds Harris-Moore made from selling his story toward victims’ compensation. In its fiscal 2015 report, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said he’d paid $90,000 toward a restitution obligation of more than $1.1 million. That was a recorded payment, separate from the amount of loss in the plea. [2] [5]
The stolen airplane gave the pursuit an ending that fit in a headline. The homeowner came to Seattle with a different measure of time. He wanted the judge to know how long his children had struggled to feel safe at home. [3]
Case brief
Camano Island / multistate, Washington · 2008–2010
- Recorded outcome
- Federal guilty plea in 2011; 78-month federal sentence in 2012, concurrent with 87-month state sentence.
Key moments
People in this case
- Colton Harris-Moore
Pleaded guilty to state and federal offenses
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The aircraft behind the nickname
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The factual basis recorded aircraft destruction and losses to owners across the journey.
Generic aircraft, not a model-specific diagram, flight path or actual wreck.
The losses between the flights
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The plea records personal items and business cash alongside the more publicized aircraft thefts.
Illustrative inventory. No names, account details or invented victim statements shown.
The admitted factual record
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Harris-Moore’s federal plea supplied admissions underlying the convictions and agreed loss calculation.
Not a facsimile of the signed agreement. The agreement contains more conduct than the seven charged federal counts.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Colton Harris-Moore Pleads Guilty to Seven Federal FeloniesEscape date, admitted crimes, travel, loss and plea terms.
- United States v. Harris-Moore: Plea AgreementAdmitted offense facts and agreement on restitution and proceeds.
- Colton Harris-Moore Sentenced to Six and a Half Years in PrisonFederal and state sentence relationship, victim accounts and loss figure.
- FBI: Fugitive captured in the BahamasArrest near Harbour Island and transfer to Nassau.
- U.S. Attorney’s Office: Fiscal 2015 collections and Harris-Moore restitutionReports a $90,000 payment toward a restitution obligation of more than $1.1 million.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 490 words