By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

AFTER six years in state prison, legal counsel for Colton Harris-Moore, the infamous serial thief better known as “The Barefoot Bandit”, is anticipating an early release.

According to international reports, Harris-Moore’s attorney John Henry Browne confirmed that he could be released from Stafford Creek Corrections Centre to a halfway house as early as this week.

Upon release, Mr Browne said the 25-year-old Washington state native will be given a clerical job and answer telephones at his law office at Pioneer Square, Seattle.

According to The Seattle Times, Mr Browne said he and Harris-Moore agreed years ago that the latter would work part-time at his law firm at Pioneer Square, Seattle, while looking for a full-time job and eventually going to school.

Harris-Moore’s formal early release date is listed as January 17. 

“He’ll be looking for full-time work and will eventually be going to school,” Mr Browne reportedly told the Seattle Times on Wednesday. 

Harris-Moore, who is reportedly serving a six-year sentence, earned the nickname “The Barefoot Bandit” for stealing cars, boats and planes during a two-year crime spree in the northern United States, during which time he left chalk drawings of his bare feet at 39 crime scenes, along with the word “C’ya.” 

His ability to constantly elude law enforcement further added to the folklore surrounding his alias. 

But his crime spree came to an end in 2010, after a $620,000 single-engine Cessna Corvalis 400 plane he allegedly stole from Monroe County Airport in Bloomington, Indiana, crash-landed in marshes near Sandy Point, Abaco. He was later captured and arrested without incident by Bahamian police after leading authorities on a brief boat chase in waters leading to Whale Point, Eleuthera. 

Prior to his capture, it was alleged that Harris-Moore broke into several stores and homes in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, before stealing the boat and heading to Eleuthera. 

According to local reports at the time, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said than the then 19 year old would be arraigned in a Bahamian court, facing numerous charges for the alleged crimes he committed in the Bahamas. 

However, despite those declarations of Commissioner Greenslade, Harris-Moore was only charged with illegal landing and fined $300 on July 13. He was then deported to the United States, where he was later reportedly sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison by a federal judge. 

Nonetheless, by the time he was captured, and possibly well before, Harris-Moore and his daring exploits, though criminal in nature, had attracted both local and international attention.

Bahamian music artist “Puzzle” has since come out with a song called “The Barefoot Bandit,” a song about Harris-Moore’s exploits and subsequent capture in the Bahamas. 

Additionally, Harris-Moore has reportedly sold the movie rights to his life story to 21st Century Fox for $1m. However, that fee was reportedly to pay restitution he owed for damage to stolen cars, planes, amongst other things as a result of his crimes.