Most teenage thieves content themselves with a spot of shoplifting. Colton Harris-Moore, a 19-year-old on the run from US authorities for two years, has bigger ambitions: he is being hunted in the Bahamas after stealing a plane and making a 1,000-mile flight from the mainland.

Harris-Moore, known as the Barefoot Bandit for the trademark shoeless prints left at a series of crime scenes, is believed to have ditched the single-engine Cessna – one of a series of planes he has stolen and apparently taught himself to fly – in shallow water on the tip of Great Abaco island, the largest in the Bahamas archipelago.

Since then he has been implicated in the burglary of at least seven homes and businesses on the island, local police say. During one break-in, at a restaurant in the island's main town of Marsh Harbour, Harris-Moore was spotted by a security camera, which he stared straight into before shining a torch at it to blur the image. "He seemed pretty relaxed and at ease," said the restaurant owner, Alistair McDonald.

Despite the seemingly indiscriminate way Harris-Moore targets homes and businesses and the lack of any apparent motive beyond personal gain and an element of self-mythologising, the Barefoot Bandit's long run from the law has made him something of a folk hero in parts of the US. He has thousands of Facebook followers, as well as a fan club selling T-shirts.

But while Bahamas police have warned that the teenager should be considered armed and dangerous, since escaping from a juvenile detention centre two years ago Harris-Moore has not carried out any violent acts.

Last month he left a $100 donation at an animal hospital in Seattle, although as the local police chief put it at the time: "It's easy to be generous with other people's money."

Growing up in countryside just north of Seattle, Harris-Moore gained his first theft conviction aged 12 and in 2007 was given a four-year sentence in juvenile detention. But after being moved to a halfway house he escaped from an open window and went on the run.

Since then, as well as stealing cash in innumerable burglaries the teenager has taken several cars and boats, as well as four single-engine planes despite a lack of any formal flight training. The latest flight took him from Bloomington, Indiana, where the plane was stolen.

Despite being a conspicuous 195cm (6ft 5in) in height, Harris-Moore has evaded authorities, in part because of his constant movement and also because the only people seeking him are local police forces – a lack of any serious crimes means the FBI have little interest in him.

The island he is on is small, with only 16,000 inhabitants, and Harris-Moore is believed to be sheltering in countryside or else blending in with tourists in town for the annual yachting regatta.

The teenager's mother, Pam Kohler, insists many of the allegations made against her son are false. She told Associated Press she hoped he would eventually reach a country without an extradition agreement with the US. "I'm glad he's able to enjoy beautiful islands, but they extradite. It doesn't help matters at all," she said.