Anthony Curcio - Heist and High

Heist and High

Anthony Curcio and Dane Batty

Nish Publishing Company
Portland, Oregon

Acknowledgements

Id like to acknowledge the following people who helped throughout this journey of creating the book you are about to read.

To my wife, Emily: Her loyalty and patience has been unmatched throughout the process of this book. Shes stood by my side and fought in the trenches when I couldnt fight myself. She is my best friend and I love her and our little girls more than anything in this world. The three of you are my motivation.

To my grandparents Poppa and Grammy, my Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Mary and Uncle Mario: You never quit writing to me. Your consistent love and support during my toughest times will never be forgotten.

To Dick and Kathy for watching over my family like angels: You deserved retirement but instead were helping raise my children and being there for Emily. And took care of that damn cat who scratched up everything in the house. A million thank yous would never be enough for all you have done.

To my parents, who traveled to the end of the world and back to see their baby boy that they never stopped loving: Youve taught me everything I needed to know.... I just wish I had listened earlier. I love you both with all my heart.

Foreword

The best books teach us something new about something we thought we knew, and do it in a way that captivates us so thoroughly we dont even realize were learning something. These books change our worldview, usually in subtle ways, short-circuiting our preconceptions and forcing us to think rather than simply react.

So it is with the book youre about to read. The next time youre tempted to write off a criminal as just another low-life junkie chasing his next fix, youre going to stop and think, if only for a minute. Its going to occur to you that maybe this perp wasnt born evil, that at one point he was just another loving son in a loving family, that he hadnt intended to become an addict and that maybe something happened that overwhelmed him and derailed his ambitions.

Anthony Curcio was just such a kid: charming, athletic, full of ambition and blessed with possibilities. As of this writing, hes in prison. His was one of those stories in the local paper that barely merits a shake of the head before you turn to the sports page. But its a story worth paying attention to, except that youre not going to get it from the beat reporter who took down the bare facts, crafted it into the standard set of sentences, turned it in and then forgot about it. Youre not going to learn anything useful from that story and theres a lot to learn.

It takes a special hand to convey chaos and direction at the same time, so that when a turning point is finally reached, it can be seen as a natural progression of the turbulence that preceded it rather than just another in a long series of random inflection points. This narrative clearly details Anthonys harrowing story.

There is a temptation for a biographer, eager to spare us tedium, to forego critical detail and blithely hack out entire weeks or months until the life in question appears to be a series of tightly connected, well-planned and precisely executed episodes. But no life is ever like that, and this is especially true of Anthony Curcios. Heist and High makes order out of a disordered life without contorting it into an invented structure, yet while still providing a meaningful arc where only discord was present, discovering underlying themes when only chaos reigned on the surface.

To read Heist and High is to watch a train go over a cliff, but also to see just how it got there. Like watching a disaster film for a second time, you find yourself hoping that things will turn out better, knowing all the while that they wont. Every time Curcio swears that hes clean and will never again backslide, we believe that he believes it, and we hope its true, even though we know it isnt. The book puts us deep inside the tormented mans mind and has us rooting for him, and rooting for his wife and his mother and for his life to turn out okay.

Whether it will or not is still an open question. But Im rooting for him, and thats because Heist and High has shown me a human beneath the sound bite.

Lee Gruenfeld
Palm Springs, California
Co-Author of Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

One

Monroe, Washington, September 30th, 2008

A nthony pulled the trigger on the can of bear mace, spraying the Brinks armored car messenger in the face. Howling in agony, the mans head snapped back, his hands clawed at his burning eyes.

As he grabbed the canvas bags of cash, Anthony prayed, God, I know you dont like what Im doing, so I wont ask you for your help. But please do whats best for my family and take care of them .

God was listening, but He had His own plan.

Anthony dashed away from the bank toward his getaway, but he felt as if he was running in slow motion. Am I being followed? He risked glancing back, but no one was there. Are they trying to figure out if the other landscapers are part of the robbery? He turned his attention back to trying to get out of sight. The bank bags were terribly heavy and he realized he couldnt carry both, so he dropped the small bag while crossing Old Owen Road. Still, the larger bag with most of the loot was heavy and bulky; it was putting him off his stride. It wasnt as easy as making for the end zone with a football. Although there wasnt an opposing team he could see, he knew they were out thereand soon there would be helicopters and police cars.

By his calculations, he was off all of the cameras, but it was hard to concentrate with the terror of the robbery, coming off his high and trying to get out of there. Whats my next step? His mental fog cleared a bit: Right. Down this way next. He crossed Old Owen Road, raced down a gravel road, past a lumber yard and headed into the park. He stopped and looked back, but still didnt see anybody. Thats when he realized he was gasping for air and needed a hit. Im not the high school all star wide receiver anymore.

It seemed safe to ditch his disguise now. He removed the painters mask and sucked down deep gulps of pine-scented air. Then he took off his hat, wig and goggles in one quick swipe and chucked them on to the dirt road. Anthony knew all the police reports would say that the suspect was wearing a blue landscapers outfitbut hed made sure the area was filled with suspects. Hed placed a Craigslist ad for landscapers that got over a dozen guys to come to the bank parking lot, all dressed in blue shirts and pants, as cover for his move. But hed been wearing a special tear-away outfit. Unfortunately, the pants had come off when he jumped the guard, revealing his shorts. He still had on the Velcro shirt with long sleeves sewn in. Once he ripped it off there was one less landscaper suspect. Anthony knew hed left no prints on the radio, pepper spray canister or other tools hed left at the scene. This wasnt just from careful planning. He was good at not leaving prints at this point in his criminal career. Even today he finds himself avoiding leaving prints on things that no longer matter, although hes slowly trying to cure himself of these habits.

He was aware he was leaving DNA evidence behind in the painters mask, but since he had never been a felon, there were no DNA matches for the authorities to link back to him. In his extensive research on the Internet, he couldnt find evidence of a robbery ever being solved using DNA in Washington State anyway.