19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore is still on the run, evading and even taunting authorities at every turn. INSIDE EDITION headed to Puget Sound, Washington, to look for the fugitive teen.
INSIDE EDITION launched a drone helicopter equipped with an infrared camera in the dead of night. The drone was combing a forest in search of the most wanted teen in America, Colton Harris-Moore.
Harris-Moore has been playing and mouse with cops for years. Now 19, he is the prime suspect in as many as 100 brazen burglaries on a string of islands in Washington state's Puget Sound. The teen fugitive was caught by a surveillance camera, but he has managed to elude authorities. Some people see him as a cult hero. There is even a mock wanted poster from Maxim magazine that calls Colton Harris-Moore an "All-American outlaw" and "The Jesse James of Puget Sound."
"He's playing a game and everyone knows that," one local told INSIDE EDITION.
Just like the Hollywood movie Catch Me If You Can, the teen outlaw continues to evade and taunt authorities. He once left behind a picture of himself taken with a stolen camera. After he was dubbed "the Barefoot Bandit," Harris-Moore drew cartoonish footprints following a break-in, and wrote "C'YA."
The teen bandit's cult status only grew when cops suspected him of stealing four planes and flying them without ever taking a lesson. The planes were discovered crash-landed, but the teenager was no where to be found.
INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander boarded a ferry bound for Orcas Island, where he is still believed to he hiding out.
Kyle Ater's grocery market was broken into. He showed INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander his smashed surveillance equipment and says the teen even took a blueberry cheesecake!
"Some people are making this guy out to be a folk hero," Megan Alexander told Ater.
"That is really upsetting," said Ater. "He's not a folk hero, he's a criminal."
And the local deputy sheriff was unwilling to share any information, telling Alexander, "You're asking me questing I cannot answer."
Some reports say he's hiding out in the woods, so Alexander and a camera crew trekked into the forest, searching for any sign of Harris-Moore's presence or campsite.
Alexander went to an abandoned mine, hoping the teen fugitive was using it as a hideout. The mine was cold and pitch-black, and there was no evidence Harris-Moore had ever used the mine as shelter.
INSIDE EDITION also arranged for an aerial search of the island.
Tabb Firchau of Aerial Pan Imaging operated a drone helicopter. It's a technology that can offer an entirely different view of the island. With the infrared camera activated, the chopper hovered above the treetops and peered into the dense forest to spot any warm-blooded individuals.
The helicopter's camera spotted someone moving in the forest, but when Firchau maneuvered the drone closer to the unidentified subject, he disappeared into the dense woods.
Meanwhile, it looks like the teen outlaw is about to get the Hollywood treatment! A movie studio recently announced it is planning to make a movie about Harris-Moore.
