A couple of days ago, we’ve shown you a clip of a spectacular Johannesburg heist. In the midst of a traffic jam, armed robbers stole an undisclosed amount of money from an armored truck by blowing its doors off. The bravery, or better to say the audacity of this robbery truly amazed us. We really can’t help but wonder how did they pull that off?
A robbery like that takes a lot of planning to complete, and it’s nothing like in the movies. Italian Job, Ocean’s Eleven and similar heist movies are there to entertain, not to educate. That’s why we don’t really know what goes into planning and pulling off a successful heist. And just because of that, there’s something incredibly intriguing about big heists. In a weird way, they are glamorous, especially if they involve Robin Hood-like behavior. Nobody likes banks, and when one gets robbed, there’s always a strong sense of justice among the people.
Curcio turned to crime after the 2008 real estate collapse
David Pakman’s interview with a bank robber offers rare insight into the world of high stake heists. The man is Anthony Curcio, an armored car robber who served five years for the crime he committed. “I was an idiot first of all” started Curcio, who turned to a life of crime after the economy collapsed in 2008. As he said, desperation is what made him plan the robbery and actually commit the crime. At the time, he was addicted to cocaine and painkillers which only made him spiral out of control.
Even though Curcio was flipping properties for a living, he was a self-described tough guy who was already involved in crime. That’s why it was relatively easy for him to organize the robbery. As he admits, it took a lot of planning and observation, and it was the longest phase in executing the heist.
The execution took a lot of planning
During that phase, Curcio dressed up as a gardener. Next, he put up an ad on Craigslist with a fake job offering. He organized the interview near the bank at the time of the robbery and asked for all interviewees to be dressed similarly, so he could create confusion and make his escape easier.
The actual act of robbery involved pepper spraying at the right moment and escaping with $400,000 of money. Curcio’s luck turned when a homeless man recognized him, writing down his license plate. Because of this man, Curcio went to prison. But, as he alone admits, that man saved his life because, in his words, he’d probably wind up dead by now. In his interview, Curcio also speaks about his prison experience that included solitary confinement too.
Luckily for Anthony Curcio, he was self-conscious enough to act good in prison. On basis of good conduct, he exited in the fifth out of six years of the sentence. By turning his life around, Curcio became an activist. Today, he speaks to students around the United States about how he went from a promising sportsman to a career criminal and drug addict and back to being a valuable member of society. Curcio also managed to save his marriage, and he’s a proud father of two daughters.
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