Will Barefoot Bandit Become Criminal "Folk Hero"

VICTORIA - On what had been a quiet Wednesday morning in 1999, Beacon Hill Park was crawling with police armed with shotguns. They are looking for notorious bank robber Stephen Reid who entered a nearby Royal Bank dressed as a police officer, and minutes later hopped into a waiting car with more than $90,000. Reid and a partner sped through James Bay, pursued by police, including Sgt. Bill Trudeau who was on a motorcycle and dodging bullets. "Stephen Reid was hanging out the passenger window he was pounding off rounds" Trudeau now recalls.

Reid was eventually caught, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He admitted he had relapsed into drug addiction at the time of the robbery, which came after many years of crime-free living with his wife Susan Musgrave.

But his life in the 1970s and 80s is the stuff of legend. He was a member of the Stopwatch Gang, making millions robbing banks all over North America, and even getting away with $700,000 in gold bars from Ottawa Airport. "You know how much fun it is to rip them bags open and get all that money out. Have fun with your friends and you look at things back and say yeah, you know I did it. I did it better than anybody's been doing it" Reid has said of his past.

While in prison, Reid wrote the semi-autobiographical "Jackrabbit Parole" released in 1986, that earned him rave reviews and the love of his future-wife. Royal Roads Communications Professor Michael Real says the story of Stephen Reid, and the Stopwatch Gang, falls right into the classic-style of folk hero criminals. The Stopwatch Gang had that quality of being polite to people as they were holding them up, telling them this won't take long, and with a stopwatch hanging around Reid's neck."

Real says colourful nicknames like the the Stopwatch Gang and the Barefoot Bandit follow in the tradition of Billy the Kid and Wild Bill Hickok. And the story of the bandit, 19-year old Colton Harris-Moore escaping authorities for two years, allegedly stealing planes he taught himself to fly, and being suspected of committing many crimes shoeless - fascinates the public. "There's a danger in glorifying criminals like this, it's not a good role model. But there's also an attraction in people who thumb their nose at the authorities."

Trudeau suggests anyone who looks up to prolific criminals needs a reality check. "Stephen Reid walks in there disguised as a police officer, sticks a shotgun in somebody's, a lady's face, who is somebody's mom or sister or wife, and makes them think the last thing they're gonna see is the business end of the shotgun he's carrying."

And the Victoria Police officer who says he once rounded a corner on Dallas Road to discover Reid leaned over the hood of his getaway car, set up for an ambush, says the criminals we look up to simply ruin people's lives. "You come home from work, and somebody's kicked open your door, they've taken your personal belongings and done god knows what else, yeah that's pretty glamourous. It's not glamourous at all. It's really cowardly."

The Barefoot Bandit's case is set to go before a Grand Jury in Seattle. As for Stephen Reid, he has apologized for the 1999 robbery at the bank on Cook Street, which was uncharacteristically violent compared with his heyday in the Stopwatch Gang. We contacted Reid, who is out on day parole, and lives in the area for an interview, but he declined, saying he doesn't want to jeopardize an upcoming parole hearing.

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