Article about the Barefoot Bandit, I edited some, bolding also mine.
MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas – A teenage fugitive with a celebrated history of escapes has allegedly committed several nighttime burglaries in the Bahamas, eluding an FBI-aided manhunt on the sliver of an island where he crash-landed a stolen plane.
Investigators pursuing Colton Harris-Moore were following a trail of break-ins from the southern tip of Great Abaco Island, where the 19-year-old convict ditched the plane Sunday, to the main town of Marsh Harbour 50 miles (80 kilometers) away where the teen was recognized on surveillance footage of a restaurant burglary.
Back in the U.S., he has become a folk hero of sorts, with a fan club hawking T-shirts emblazoned with his image, songs about his exploits and tens of thousands of followers on Facebook.
"If he is there to be caught our police will catch him," Turnquest said.
Assistant Superintendent Hulan Hanna said police be
lieved the fugitive was still on Great Abaco.
His first conviction — for possession of stolen property — came at age 12. Within a few months of turning 13, he had three more. Each brought a 10-day stint in detention or community service.
In 2007, he was sentenced to nearly four years in juvenile detention after being caught in an unoccupied home. After he was transferred to a halfway house, he slipped out an open window more than two years ago. The 6-foot, 5-inch Harris-Moore has since been linked to dozens of burglaries, including several airplane thefts.
Pam Kohler, Harris-Moore's mother, said she wasn't surprised her son might be able to make the 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) flight from where the plane was stolen in Bloomington, Indiana, to the Bahamas after teaching himself how to fly.
She has publicly defended her son, and claims the allegations against him are exaggerated. She told The Associated Press she would have preferred he fled to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States.
"The furthest he gets from the U.S., the better," she said from her home on Camano Island in Washington state. "I'm glad he's able to enjoy beautiful islands, but they extradite. It doesn't help matters at all."