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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Searchers swarm area near crash site

Pat Gardiner, pictured Monday in his empty Bonners Ferry, Idaho, hangar, holding a photo of his stolen plane.   (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Gene Johnson Associated Press

SEATTLE – Dozens of police combed thick forest near the small town of Granite Falls on Monday, hoping they’d find a teenage burglar who may have recently turned his attention to stealing airplanes.

SWAT officers set up a perimeter and tracking teams began searching Sunday night after a break-in was reported at a home near where a single-engine Cessna taken from North Idaho crash-landed last week.

On the lam is Colton Harris-Moore, an 18-year-old from Camano Island who was first convicted at 12 and is suspected in nearly 50 cases since he sneaked out the window of a halfway house in April 2008. He is believed to have taken two planes from the San Juan Islands. He also could have stolen the Cessna from Bonners Ferry, authorities have said.