'Grand Theft Auto' Meets 'Catch Me If You Can'

What do GTA & Catch Me If You Can have in common? This guy --> Colton Harris-Moore!

At 20 years old, the Barefoot Bandit was just sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. A high school dropout and juvenile delinquent, Harris-Moorse escaped his detention center 2 years ago and has been on the run since. This dude was always one step ahead, like Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me If You Can, and survived on the road like Tommy Vercetti of GTA. He broke into homes, stole cars, boat, even planes! He taught himself to fly. He's a serious badass. As part of his plea, he agreed to give his victims any profits made on the rights to his life story as restitution.

Read this story from Reuters

SEATTLE | Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:21pm EST

(Reuters) - A serial burglar nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway.

The federal judge also ordered that Colton Harris-Moore, 20, serve his federal sentence simultaneously with a state term of more than seven years in a move his lawyers say could see him freed before his 26th birthday.

The proceedings marked the end of an extraordinary two-year saga for Harris-Moore, a high school dropout and self-taught pilot who escaped from a juvenile detention facility and stayed one step ahead of the law as he broke into homes and stole cars, boats and planes across nine states and British Columbia.

His exploits, which prosecutors said included at least 67 crimes, came to an end when he was captured in the Bahamas in July 2010 after crash-landing a stolen aircraft he had flown to the islands from Indiana.

The 78-month federal prison term he was given on Friday was the maximum he faced for seven federal charges he pleaded guilty to in June, including interstate transportation of two stolen airplanes and a yacht, two bank burglaries, possessing a firearm as a fugitive and piloting an aircraft without a valid license.

Last month in state court in Coupeville, Washington, Harris-Moore, who grew up in the Puget Sound community of Camano Island, was sentenced to 87 months for 33 crimes ranging from residential burglary to attempting to elude police.

His lawyers said that with credit Harris-Moore is expected to receive for time already served and good behavior, their client, who turns 21 on March 22, would likely spend 4-1/2 years in prison and could be released before his 26th birthday.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will determine how the 18 months he has already spent in federal custody would apply to his federal term or to the remaining 2-1/2 years of his juvenile time, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

In a 5-minute statement read before U.S. District Judge Richard Jones pronounced sentence, Harris Moore apologized for his crimes, "The lessons learned on the back of my victims are no way an excuse for my crimes."

Asked by the judge what message he would wish to send to young people, Harris-Moore said, "What I did could be called daring, but I'm lucky to be alive."

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Comment by Marni E. Goldberg on January 29, 2012 at 2:50pm

I bet this guy has a really high IQ. You don't just teach yourself to fly. Way too many settings and controls to master.

Comment by Britt Hysen on January 27, 2012 at 10:05pm

The Barefoot Bandit - kinda like the Wet Bandits?? lol you can add Home Alone to your list!

Comment by Lacey Jones on January 27, 2012 at 9:44pm

Forget the theft, this guy has nerve...a high school drop out teaching himself how to fly a plane?

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