Criminals Come to Point Roberts

Back in August, there was a flurry of excitement when some B.C. guy living and working down in tinseltown escaped the U.S. through Pt. Roberts on the way to killing himself after having killed his wife in southern California.  A gruesome tale all around except for the excitement of his having passed through here after getting a boat in Blaine and, presumably, exiting to Canada through the casual border part of Tsawwaasen backyards.   

I was at a gathering the other night when a Canadian resident of P.R., at the mention of this passing-through criminal, interjected, ‘He definitely didn’t kill himself.  I don’t think a person who is 5 feet 6 inches is likely to hang himself from a closet bar that is 6 feet and 4 inches off the ground.  That was a drug deal gone bad, I’m pretty sure.  They got his wife and then they got him.’

Somebody else asked, ‘How do you know that?’   (Obviously someone who will never get a job as a TV interviewer.)  And the Canadian answered, ‘Well, I read the papers.’

And I looked around at the rest of us who, apparently, don’t read the papers.  Or don’t read the papers that cover that kind of speculative material.  Crime reporting just isn’t what it used to be.  But soon we will be reading those papers, I suppose, if only to keep track of local crime.

Meg Olson, the All Point Bulletin’s crime and everything else reporter who covered that crime story in September, in October had to cover the new P.R. crime story.  An 18-year-old who has taken to living in the woods is alleged to have stolen a 28-foot boat over in Orcas Island and made his way to Point Roberts, abandoning said boat at the Marina.  And then, the young man—named Colton Harris-Moore (remember when a hyphenated last name suggested British upper-class?)—took to burgling Point Roberts houses, again allegedly, where he ate food from the refrigerators and took naps and showers.  A tidy, hungry, sleepy criminal.  Presumably, Mr. Harris-Moore has moved on by now, we thought, although there are plenty of empty homes here at this time of year wherein one could surely find a bed and maybe get a shower, although the refrigerator is unlikely to be well stocked.

But then this morning, Ed got an email with the ‘Pilots’ News’ with this info drawn from an article in the Seattle Times:

“Law enforcement officials believe an 18-year-old serial burglar stole his third plane last week, breaking into an Idaho hangar to snag a 2005 Cessna Skylane. Colton Harris-Moore fled a juvenile detention facility 18 months ago and has been a fugitive ever since, the Seattle Times reported. Harris-Moore never had flight training but officials think he may have picked up the basics from reading books and Internet sites. In November 2008, a plane from Orcas Island, in Puget Sound, went missing and turned up damaged after a hard landing in eastern Washington. Then last month, a plane stolen from one island in Puget Sound was found on Orcas Island, also following a hard landing. From there, officials believe Harris-Moore fled to Canada, stole a car, drove east and ditched it before walking into Idaho. They say he stole another car in Idaho to take him to Bonners Ferry, in the far northern part of the state. An abandoned car was found there last week following the theft of the Skylane. A logger in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle found the same Skylane crashed in a clearing last week, but there was no one nearby. Officials do not know where Harris-Moore is, and he has not been charged with a crime in connection with the most recent incidents. “

Mr. Harris-Moore is doubtless in L.A. at this moment lining up his very own biopic and/or arranging for a drug deal; by November, the modern-day equivalents of Bonnie and Clyde will probably be dropping by to check us out.