Miami: The American teenager who police call the "Barefoot Bandit" has finally been caught and deported.
The 19-year-old, responsible for a string of offenses, carried out over the last two years, was deported to the United States from the Bahamas on Tuesday, just hours after he pleaded guilty to a minor offense on the island.
Law enforcement officials escorted Colton Harris-Moore on a commercial flight to Miami.
Once the plane landed the young convict was taken to a federal jail in Miami, where he is scheduled to have an initial court appearance on Wednesday. It's likely he will eventually be taken to Seattle, where he was indicted.
Suspected of being involved in about 70 property crimes across eight US states and British Columbia, many of them in the bucolic islands of Washington State, he is also accused of stealing a plane from an Indiana airport to fly to the Bahamas.
On Tuesday in the Bahamas, Harris-Moore had pleaded guilty to illegally entering the country. He’d been arrested on Sunday following a high-speed boat chase.
The charge stemmed from the alleged crash of a stolen plane on Great Abaco Island, which carried a $300 (Dh1,101.65 ) fine.
His lawyer, Monique Gomez, said that Harris-Moore wanted to go home.
The shackled teen who wore, white sneakers without laces, smiled after the judge read out the sentence. Bahamian police had earlier said he’d face other charges, including illegal weapons possession, related to a string of break-ins and thefts during his weeklong hideout in the country.
He kept his head down as armed officers escorted him to the courthouse. A police SWAT team stood by as authorities put up street barricades ahead of the hearing for the infamous suspect.
Authorities say he earned the "Barefoot Bandit" nickname by committing some crimes while shoeless, and in February he allegedly drew chalk-outline feet all over the floor of a grocery store during a burglary in Washington's San Juan Islands.
His mother, Pam Kohler, seemed relieved that he had finally been caught. "I'm really tired," she said from her home on Camano Island, Washington. "Yes, I look forward to seeing him."
When asked what she planned to say to her son when she saw him, she said angrily, "What kind of question is that?" and hung up the phone.
His arrest came as a relief to people across rural Camano Island, Washington, where authorities say he has learned to dodge police.
"There's a lot of relief throughout the community," said real estate agent Mark Williams. "I think the man's luck just wore out. You run through the woods long enough; you're going to trip over a log."
Residents of the island also lashed out at the teen's mother this week, saying her decision to hire a well-known Seattle lawyer suggests she's trying to profit from a crime spree.
"Of course she wants the money. She doesn't work," said Joshua Flickner, whose family owns an island grocery store. "What makes me more angry, than the fact that she's trying to profit off this is that there's any profit to be had."
The mother's attorney downplayed any profit motive, saying Kohler contacted him for advice after being inundated by requests from news reporters as well as inquiries about book and movie deals.
"Her feelings are relief and exhaustion," O. Yale Lewis said. "Obviously, there is enormous interest in this story, and she wants to be careful about how to proceed. But her first concern has been to make sure her son is safe."
