Hollywood Studio Pays Barefoot Bandit’s Restitution
20th Century Fox gains rights to criminal’s story
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Twentieth Century Fox paid more than $1 million to cover the remaining restitution of the famed Barefoot Bandit in exchange for the intellectual property rights to his story, the Seattle Times reported on Sunday. Colton Harris-Moore became known as the Barefoot Bandit (he committed some of his thefts barefoot) after his two-year crime spree from 2008 to 2010 in Washington’s San Juan Islands, where he stole cars, airplanes, and a boat and regularly broke into vacation homes. He received a six-and-a-half-year sentence to federal prison in 2012.
The studio’s most recent and final payment of $900,000 to the U.S. Marshals’ office will largely cover the cost of the three small airplanes that Harris-Moore stole and crashed, according to the Seattle Times. Twentieth Century Fox already paid $135,558 of his restitution three years ago.
While Harris-Moore was on the run, he drew comparisons to Frank Abagnale, the real-life con man played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Catch Me if You Can, and gained nearly 50,000 Facebook followers. There’s already a book and documentary about the Barefoot Bandit, and 20th Century Fox plans to turn his story into a movie as well.