Anthony Curcio recruited a crowd of identically dressed Craigslist decoys, pepper-sprayed an armoured-car guard and escaped with more than $400,000 on an inflatable inner tube. The plan was ingenious, ridiculous and doomed by one observant witness.
Some heists are remembered for flawless execution. The D.B. Tuber robbery is remembered because every stage sounds like it was designed by an overconfident cartoon villain. Anthony Curcio spent months studying a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Washington, built a tear-away disguise, tried to dredge a creek for a jet ski and finally settled on a bright yellow rubber tube. Somehow, much of it actually worked.
We’re following Curcio from small-town football star to painkiller addiction, property losses and one of the strangest armoured-truck robberies in American history. His story did not end with prison. He returned as an author and motivational speaker, presenting himself as a lesson in accountability, before a multimillion-dollar trading-card fraud case turned the promised redemption arc upside down.
What Happened in the D.B. Tuber Heist?
Anthony “Tony” Curcio grew up in Monroe, where his family was well known and his father ran a successful landscaping business. Tony excelled at football and basketball, became a team captain and earned a football scholarship to the University of Idaho. A serious knee injury changed that trajectory. During recovery, he developed an addiction to prescription painkillers, beginning a cycle of treatment, relapse and increasingly desperate choices.
Curcio later married his high-school sweetheart and found success in real estate and house renovation. When the property market collapsed in 2007 and 2008, the money disappeared while his drug use became extraordinarily expensive. Working for the family landscaping company gave him legitimate access to the retail complex containing Monroe’s Bank of America branch. It also gave him time to study the weekly armoured-car collection.
For weeks, Curcio watched guards arrive, timed their movements and mapped cameras, police routes and escape options. He fashioned a disguise resembling a landscaper’s uniform, complete with a wig, safety goggles, painter’s mask and clothes fixed with Velcro so they could be ripped away quickly. He did not want a gunfight, so he planned to surprise the guard with pepper spray, seize the cash and disappear before anyone understood what had happened.
The original getaway was spectacular: Curcio would race down a nearby creek on a jet ski. Unfortunately, the creek was too shallow. He reportedly dredged part of it, attempted a test run and damaged the craft on a rock. His replacement was less glamorous but more practical. Curcio strung a cable along the creek and practised pulling himself through the water on an inflatable inner tube to a waiting vehicle.
The cleverest part of the scheme was a fake Craigslist job advert. Curcio offered well-paid landscaping work and instructed applicants to arrive outside the bank at 11am on 30 September 2008. Every applicant was told to wear jeans, a blue shirt, work shoes, a yellow safety vest, goggles and a painter’s mask. Around a dozen unsuspecting men appeared dressed exactly like the robber.
When the armoured-car guard arrived, Curcio rushed him, used pepper spray and grabbed bags containing more than $400,000. He ran towards the creek amid a crowd of lookalike workers, stripped off his outer disguise and made his escape on the tube. The decoys were confused, police initially had a car park full of similarly dressed people, and Curcio got away.
His downfall came from a detail he had overlooked during a rehearsal. Near the bank, a man named Alan Pace noticed a suspicious collection of objects including a wig, mask, radio and pepper spray. When a man arrived in an SUV to retrieve them, Pace recorded the licence plate. After hearing about the robbery, he realised the connection and gave the information to police. The vehicle was linked to Curcio’s wife.
Investigators still needed stronger proof. They recovered DNA from items connected to the disguise, then placed Curcio under surveillance. Agents collected a drinks bottle he discarded and matched the DNA. In November 2008, the FBI arrested him. Curcio pleaded guilty and in 2009 received a 72-month federal prison sentence, along with an order to pay restitution.
Prison seemed to change his direction. Curcio wrote and illustrated children’s books, including one intended to help children with an incarcerated parent. After release, he co-authored Heist and High, spoke publicly about addiction and responsibility and delivered a TEDx talk. He worked with young people and athletes, using his own choices as a warning. For a time, the D.B. Tuber story had a redemptive final chapter.
Then came the trading cards. Federal prosecutors alleged that Curcio and Iosif Bondarchuk sold sports and Pokémon cards in counterfeit holders carrying forged grades. A card’s grade can transform its market price, so a convincing fake label could turn an ordinary collectible into an apparently rare treasure. The scheme involved cards associated with Michael Jordan, Tom Brady and other stars, as well as valuable Pokémon cards.
Authorities said the operation generated or attempted more than $2 million in fraudulent sales between 2022 and 2024. An undercover officer bought a supposedly high-grade 1999 first-edition Venusaur card for $10,500. Curcio was arrested in May 2024, and in January 2026 a federal jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. As of October 2026, sentencing remained unresolved.
Why This Story Matters
The heist works as comedy because Curcio combined meticulous preparation with astonishingly bad judgement. Recruiting decoys was genuinely inventive. Conducting the robbery in his own small town, using his family’s vehicle during rehearsals and celebrating conspicuously afterwards were not. Intelligence and wisdom are different qualities, and Curcio’s plan demonstrates the gap perfectly.
It is also an addiction story. His opioid dependence followed an athletic injury, then grew alongside financial pressure and a fierce need to project success. That context helps explain his decline without excusing the harm. The armoured-car guard was attacked, unwitting job applicants were placed in danger and stolen money carried real consequences.
We’re especially interested in the failed redemption narrative. Curcio’s books and talks emphasised accountability, and those efforts may still have helped people. Yet the later conviction forces us to question whether public remorse reflected lasting change or simply became another identity he could perform. Human beings can do meaningful work after prison and still make destructive choices again.
Finally, Alan Pace is the quiet counterweight to Curcio’s ego. The elaborate plan was not broken by expensive surveillance technology but by a man paying attention, recognising that something felt wrong and writing down a number plate. Curcio assumed he could control every person in the scene. The one person he underestimated brought the whole production down.
Topics Include
Anthony Curcio’s rise, injury and struggle with addiction
The armoured-truck surveillance and tear-away disguise
Craigslist decoys and the inflatable inner-tube escape
The witness and DNA evidence that identified D.B. Tuber
The motivational comeback and trading-card fraud conviction
Resources and Further Reading
Heist and High – by Anthony Curcio
TEDx Talk: From Addiction to Redemption – by Anthony Curcio
Anthony Curcio – Wikipedia