'Barefoot Bandit' has a job when he's released from prison

SEATTLE - Colton Harris-Moore could be released from prison any day now, and when he is, he'll have a job.

Harris-Moore, who earned his nickname of "Barefoot Bandit" because he left his footprints at the scenes of his crimes, many on Camano Island, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence handed down in 2012 when he was 19. But his defense attorney, John Henry Browne, says Harris-Moore has served enough time that he could be set free from prison into work release at any time.

"They don't tell you in advance," Browne told KOMO News. "They just come to your cell and say pack your things, you are out of here."

The storied Seattle lawyer confirms that he offered, "with mixed-emotions" at first, the chance for the teen-turned-young-man an opportunity to intern in his law office.

"He's matured a lot," Browne says of Harris-Moore, adding his client is being mentored by a "fantastic" Boeing engineer.

After committing several crimes across northern Washington, Harris-Moore somehow, without any training, stole and piloted aircraft across the country. He crashed one outside of Granite Falls, and walked away, evading capture for some time after that. Eventually he stole cars to drive across country, committing similar theft-type crimes along the way, until he stole another plane in Indiana and flew to the Bahamas. There, he was arrested after a wild boat chase.

Harris-Moore's story is that of a broken childhood. In and out of trouble, diagnosed with several psychiatric disorders, he made his break for freedom while serving a 3 year sentence in a halfway house in south King County- punishment for stealing a camcorder. From there, the teen lived in the wild. A few sightings here and there, and those footprints the only signs of the Barefoot Bandit.

His fixation with airplanes, and lack of formal training was a recipe for disaster. Browne calls him, "A walking miracle."

In what Browne called the, "plea bargain of a lifetime," Moore at 19 was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison in a deal that consolidated most of the some 100 charges against him.

And when he gets out of jail, he has a place to live, and a job.

"He's ahead of the game than most released," Browne said.

That knock on Moore's cell door could come at any time, Browne says, and the Barefoot Bandit will begin the next phase of his life.

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