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Heist and High
The media called him "D.B. Tuber" and the "Craigslist Robber." They said the heist was like "The Thomas Crown Affair" and the robber was "a modern day Robin Hood stealing from the rich." He was the talk of the town and even national media. The detective who caught him said the robbery had "all the preparation of a top-notch heist by an experienced criminal." Anthony Curcio got away with over $400,000 and went to Vegas. . . then got caught and put in prison. But how did an all-American high school football star, a kid with a sure shot at being an all-star college wide receiver, and maybe even fulfilling his dream of going to the NFL, end up robbing a Brink's armored truck? Prescription painkillers. "Prescription drug users are your judges, your police officers, your professional athletes, your bosses, your coworkers, your entertainers, your pastor, his wife, your wife, your kid's school teacher. . . and even you." Heist & High is the story of Anthony's descent from a life full of promise into the hell of prescription drug addiction and the need to do anything-even rob an armored truck- for what he thought would be that one last fix.
- GenresNonfiction
286 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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March 6, 2014i thought it was good how it showed his addiction and how it showed he was athletic and thats how it ended with him playing basketball in prison showing all the promise he had one he was a teenager i love that he was with his highschool sweetheart and married her n i like the ending how he speaks to the reader!!!
November 29, 2016
This is a profoundly personal story for me and would be for any guy that has struggled with opiates. It reminds me of the stories told at AA speakers meetings only much more awesome. There is a solution to drug abuse and it is spelled out in these pages.
July 20, 2019
Fascinating story of crime and multiple drug addiction
I was very pleasantly surprised at just how good this tale of addiction, crime, punishment, and (possible) rehabilitation turned out to be. I had read co-author Dane Batty’s previous venture into the true crime genre (“Wanted: Gentleman Bank Robber” 2010) and it was good. This one is even better.
Author Anthony Curcio himself is the subject so this is as much a memoir as it is a true crime saga. Curcio is that kind of attractive and athletic golden boy who is good at just about everything he puts his mind to, the kind of guy who from childhood gets away with way too much just because people tend to like him and forgive his transgressions. Unfortunately he has one fatal flaw, addiction. He managed to addict himself to pain pills, alcohol, cocaine, and adrenaline rushes while ingesting a wide variety of other pharmaceuticals. At one point he was spending $350 a day on drugs or over $127,000 a year.
His personality is manic-depressive. When he’s flying he can do anything; when he’s down he is suicidal. And of course the drugs only made things massively worse.
The central event in the book is the Brinks armored car robbery that took place in Monroe, Washington in 2008. Curcio got away with something like $400,000. It was a painstaking-planned heist with several original touches that caught the media’s attention.
Curcio put an ad in Craig’s list and got over a dozen guys to dress as he would be dressed in blue landscaper’s outfits. They were instructed to show up in the parking lot near the bank just before the Brinks truck would arrive thereby providing cover for Curcio’s get away—which, by the way was via a nearby stream on an inner tube. You may have seen a reenactment of this crime in a recently broadcasted segment on TV’s 20/20. The segment is probably archived at their web site. I saw it. It’s worth viewing.
But what this book is really about is Curcio’s spiral from high school heart throb and star athlete (and class clown) to the very depths of depravity as he desperately scrounges, lies, cheats, schemes and steals to support a massive drug habit, the likes of which I have never read about before. Batty interviewed Curcio in prison. He also interviewed his wife Emily. Every page screams authenticity. The prose just runs under your eyes as you quickly turn the pages. I read the book in a single day.
Some observations: At one point Curcio totally identified himself as a criminal citing the criminality of bankers and others in power. Part of this was just a rationalization that allowed him to commit crimes without guilt. But part of it is what millions of people genuinely feel: they have been cheated, lied to and stolen from. For some there’s the sense that it’s all a jungle and the tiger does not feel it is wrong to eat the lamb.
The material on being in prison was strikingly vivid as Curcio depicted the mentality of the prisoners and their guards and the various hells he went through. The authenticity reminded me of Jimmy A. Lerner’s excellent “You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish” (2002). In some ways Curcio’s account is even better. You won’t want to miss knowing what it’s like to spend weeks in a tiny cell with a crazed white supremacist as hundreds of cockroaches crawl all over your body.
As in many true crime tales we have the ever-suffering, ever-naïve, ever in denial wife. Her name is Emily and she and Curcio were sweethearts from the eighth grade. He had shown such promise and she loved him so much... Yet she is heroic in the way she works to hold her family together at all costs. Near the end she learns of Curcio’s many infidelities and demands that he come clean and tell her the truth. It is a bit strange that these infidelities (which, incidentally, are NOT written about in the book) was what hurt her the most. Not the stealing, the neglect, the shame, the fear—no it was his unfaithfulness. In her demand that he confess all we see a power struggle between husband and wife. In the final analysis he apparently does confess all and I would say she won.
And maybe her amazing ability to stay with Curcio and her ability to forgive him will in the long run be rewarded. Curcio got out of prison in 2013 and there is the hope that he can conquer the bipolar demons that haunt him without spiraling back into drug addiction. He is a talented man and although a criminal, he is not the kind of criminal that wants to hurt people. He is a flawed human being who may yet use his talent in socially responsible ways.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
I was very pleasantly surprised at just how good this tale of addiction, crime, punishment, and (possible) rehabilitation turned out to be. I had read co-author Dane Batty’s previous venture into the true crime genre (“Wanted: Gentleman Bank Robber” 2010) and it was good. This one is even better.
Author Anthony Curcio himself is the subject so this is as much a memoir as it is a true crime saga. Curcio is that kind of attractive and athletic golden boy who is good at just about everything he puts his mind to, the kind of guy who from childhood gets away with way too much just because people tend to like him and forgive his transgressions. Unfortunately he has one fatal flaw, addiction. He managed to addict himself to pain pills, alcohol, cocaine, and adrenaline rushes while ingesting a wide variety of other pharmaceuticals. At one point he was spending $350 a day on drugs or over $127,000 a year.
His personality is manic-depressive. When he’s flying he can do anything; when he’s down he is suicidal. And of course the drugs only made things massively worse.
The central event in the book is the Brinks armored car robbery that took place in Monroe, Washington in 2008. Curcio got away with something like $400,000. It was a painstaking-planned heist with several original touches that caught the media’s attention.
Curcio put an ad in Craig’s list and got over a dozen guys to dress as he would be dressed in blue landscaper’s outfits. They were instructed to show up in the parking lot near the bank just before the Brinks truck would arrive thereby providing cover for Curcio’s get away—which, by the way was via a nearby stream on an inner tube. You may have seen a reenactment of this crime in a recently broadcasted segment on TV’s 20/20. The segment is probably archived at their web site. I saw it. It’s worth viewing.
But what this book is really about is Curcio’s spiral from high school heart throb and star athlete (and class clown) to the very depths of depravity as he desperately scrounges, lies, cheats, schemes and steals to support a massive drug habit, the likes of which I have never read about before. Batty interviewed Curcio in prison. He also interviewed his wife Emily. Every page screams authenticity. The prose just runs under your eyes as you quickly turn the pages. I read the book in a single day.
Some observations: At one point Curcio totally identified himself as a criminal citing the criminality of bankers and others in power. Part of this was just a rationalization that allowed him to commit crimes without guilt. But part of it is what millions of people genuinely feel: they have been cheated, lied to and stolen from. For some there’s the sense that it’s all a jungle and the tiger does not feel it is wrong to eat the lamb.
The material on being in prison was strikingly vivid as Curcio depicted the mentality of the prisoners and their guards and the various hells he went through. The authenticity reminded me of Jimmy A. Lerner’s excellent “You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish” (2002). In some ways Curcio’s account is even better. You won’t want to miss knowing what it’s like to spend weeks in a tiny cell with a crazed white supremacist as hundreds of cockroaches crawl all over your body.
As in many true crime tales we have the ever-suffering, ever-naïve, ever in denial wife. Her name is Emily and she and Curcio were sweethearts from the eighth grade. He had shown such promise and she loved him so much... Yet she is heroic in the way she works to hold her family together at all costs. Near the end she learns of Curcio’s many infidelities and demands that he come clean and tell her the truth. It is a bit strange that these infidelities (which, incidentally, are NOT written about in the book) was what hurt her the most. Not the stealing, the neglect, the shame, the fear—no it was his unfaithfulness. In her demand that he confess all we see a power struggle between husband and wife. In the final analysis he apparently does confess all and I would say she won.
And maybe her amazing ability to stay with Curcio and her ability to forgive him will in the long run be rewarded. Curcio got out of prison in 2013 and there is the hope that he can conquer the bipolar demons that haunt him without spiraling back into drug addiction. He is a talented man and although a criminal, he is not the kind of criminal that wants to hurt people. He is a flawed human being who may yet use his talent in socially responsible ways.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
May 28, 2014
I a very sorry if this sound rude but I tried to read it so many times but honestly, I didn't like it. the book sounded interesting and when I won the book I was so happy and tried to read it but it was not what I expect it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews