BAREFOOTIN'

So what’s the deal with Colton being the “barefoot burglar”?

Colt’s Wiki speculates that he takes off his shoes to “conceal his footprints.”

Sure, just like you’d take off your hat to conceal your hair color.

Colt’s mom told me that her little Huck Finn would spend a lot of the summertime barefoot. Nothing strange about that, even up here in the Pacific Northwest. The islands we live on in Puget Sound lie within rainshadows. We’re surrounded by the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver Island and, on the eastern side, the Cascades. The Olympics and the western hills of Vancouver Island are some of the rainiest places on the continent. Within their rainshadows, though, we get only a fraction of the precipitation (for instance, the San Juan’s receive half of Seattle’s rainfall), and it’s sunny and 72 for most of the summer. Nice weather for flip flops and barefoot beaching.

Colt has been seen barefoot at some crime scenes, though, including on the security tape from Vern’s Bayside Restaurant (and bar and pool hall) on Orcas Island. There have also been bare footprints found at several other scenes (including a plane hangar) that have yet to be concretely tied to Harris-Moore.

And therein lay a potential future big problem for Colt.

As one of the county sheriffs who’s been chasing Colt told me: “We take fingerprints, not toe prints.”

If/when Colt gets caught, his footprints — which are just as unique and identifiable as fingerprints — could give police the evidence they need to indict for more crimes than Colt’s currently wanted for.

Thus my wonder at the Wiki wackiness about Colt going barefoot “to conceal his footprints…”

If you leave shoe prints at a crime scene, the police need to first positively identify the shoe, and then positively tie you to those shoes, which can be very difficult or impossible if you put a layer between you and the purchase. But leave a bare footprint or toe print at the scene, and the police have incontrovertible proof you were there.

So why would he go barefoot? Just because he likes it? Maybe. There are a lot of people who enjoy the freedom of going shoeless — they even have clubs and support groups. Colt commits most of his crimes in the warmer months, then hibernates in the winter… so that fits.

Other security cameras have caught him on tape wearing shoes and boots, though. And his mom told me she bought Colt an expensive pair of running shoes and gave them to him while he was last in detention. That was nearly two years ago though… So here’s a theory:

Colt’s reportedly gone from 6’2” to 6’5” in that time. Makes sense, then, that his feet have grown as well. As a wanted man whose face has been all over the news and even on Wanted posters here in the Northwest, Colt can’t risk just sauntering in to the Foot Locker at the Everett Mall.

He breaks into vacation homes, but how many have size 14 or so shoes lying around? Colt also has a history of ordering merchandise online, but none of the police reports I’ve seen mention Zappos. Maybe he just has a hard time finding shoes that fit...

For the record, Colt, I only wear a 10.5.