The kid already gets enough press.

​At this point, authorities on Orcas Island should lay low and not say a peep about Colton Harris-Moore until he's snugly in cuffs in the back of a squad car. Because their current strategy of announcing their failures to the world is like Miracle-Gro for the Barefoot Burglar legend.

Yesterday, the San Juan County Sheriff's Office sent an e-mail blast telling press around the region (and, presumably, around the world) about a massive manhunt. A 35-member team that included the FBI and helicopter air support were called to an area where a figure matching Harris-Moore's description had been spotted trying to break into a house. And yet, after 14 hours of searching, nothing.

As San Juan Undersheriff Jon Zerby told The Seattle Times, the question now becomes, "How come you can't catch this guy?" Or, better yet, "Why say anything to the world until you've caught him?"

Shantina Smiley and her son have been missing for two days.

​UPDATE: A boys body has washed up near where Smiley and her son were last seen. Details after the jump.

On Saturday night, Shantina Smiley and her eight-year-old son Azriel were driving from Silverdale to Castle Rock to visit her stepfather. They haven't been seen since.

The gold van driven by the 29-year-old portrait photographer was recovered later that night. Its doors were open, and it was partially submerged in a cove in Budd's Inlet, 12 miles away from Olympia.

Inside the van police found Smiley's wallet. Her credit cards and identification were still in it, but her purse was missing.

I can't decide what's worse, the grinch who stole $465 in cash, the anguished reaction of the Girl Scout or the KOMO producer who entitled the segment "Cookie Monster."

Assault? Sure. But a hate crime too?

​It's entirely possible that we've taken this whole "hate crime" idea a step too far.

Last week, a drunk, homeless 52-year-old man was outside of an International District apartment building. When a female tenant walked by the man allegedly grabbed her ass and called her a "big-butted white girl."

The women got scared. So she went upstairs and told her boyfriend, who held the old man down on the ground until cops arrived.

Now here's the catch. This old, drunk fool ass-grabber is black. Ipso facto, thanks to his unwelcome advance he was arrested on suspicion of assault, and may possibly be charged with a hate crime.

"Boy for sale!"

​Gavin is four-years-old. He loves basketball, hates vegetables and can be yours for the low, low price of $5,000.

Last month, a Spokane woman saw a Craigslist ad from the boy's father offering him for sale. "It is going to kill me to do this but as I stated before I cannot afford to keep him," it read. "His Motherr is out of the picture and my parents no longer talk to me since I've had Gavin. So I don't know what else to do other than find a good family with kids or a couple that wants a son."

Attached to the post was a picture of boy in a yellow fireman's hat and a t-shirt with the word "Adventure" written on the front. The woman contacted police, who have since collected records from Craigslist in an attempt to find out if some dad really is trying to hawk his son or if it's all just a hoax.

Flickr

Not pictured: hooligans.

​- The Blotter reports that a Portland Timbers fan who thought he was engaging in a little "friendly rivalry banter" soon found out otherwise, when three Sounders "hooligans" allegedly punched him in the face and tried to choke him with his own scarf.

- Jonah at SeattleCrime thinks Mayor Mike McGinn's pilot program to take downtown police off their bikes and back on their feet might be missing the point.

- Our confusing medical marijuana laws have produced another unintended consequence: the dreaded New York Times "trend piece."

Andru Pulu does not appreciate your attempts at reconciliation.

​Seemingly uneasy about Oregon's domination of off-season headlines, defensive end Andru Pulu put Washington in the spotlight when he allegedly face-stomped a fellow party-goer.

According to a police report, Pulu was one of two men fighting when an unidentified 22-year-old with an eye on breaking things up told him "it's not that big of a deal." Unfortunately for our amateur bomb-diffuser, these seven words were apparently enough to detonate the 6'1'', 250-pound Pulu.

For his troubles, the Husky student got a broken nose, a fractured cheek bone and a boot stomp so hard he still had a footprint on his forehead when police interviewed him in the hospital.

Pulu turned himself in yesterday and has been suspended indefinitely. So it's your move, Oregon. And don't even try to steal anymore frat boy laptops. You've already played that card.

Maxi, whose max may be 30 years.

​The FBI is Your Friend. Literally. A government document released today by a San Francisco watchdog group shows how deeply entrenched the agency is in the social media, seeking out criminal suspects on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook by posing as fellow Spacers, Tweeters and Friends. The Electronic Frontier Foundation obtained the Justice Department document that shows how local and federal law enforcement agencies mine the personal online data for evidence in cases of violent crime and financial fraud. Reports the AP:

"The Justice Department document, part of a presentation given in August by top cybercrime officials, describes the value of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other services to government investigators. It does not describe in detail the boundaries for using them." Still, while revelations of such tactics aren't likely to shock anyone already aware of the intrusive ways of the Internet, the methods do pay off. Take the case of accused Seattle embezzler Maxi Sopo, caught hiding in Mexico after he brilliantly tipped off investigators to his whereabouts - via Facebook.

He narrowly missed his femoral artery, otherwise he would have been a shoo-in.

​Last Monday, a 911 caller told police that a man in Seward Park was sitting in his car, bleeding from a gunshot wound. When cops arrived they found a 24-year-old man who claimed to be the victim of an attempted robbery. But that bogus story started to fall apart when officers found a Smith & Wesson .38 stashed in the bushes nearby.

Eventually the man confessed: there was no robber. He'd accidentally shot himself in the leg. So why didn't he tell the truth?