"D. B. Tuber" robs an armored car guard at the Bank of America in Monroe on September 30, 2008.

On September 30, 2008, in one of the more unique bank robberies in Washington state history -- one that makes the national news -- an armored car guard is robbed outside of a Bank of America branch in Monroe (Snohomish County).  The robber posts a Craigslist ad several days before the robbery, seeking workers for a phony job in Monroe; the workers are instructed to wear the same work outfit. Those answering the ad receive emailed instructions telling them to meet near the bank at 11 a.m. on September 30, and about a dozen men show up at the prearranged hour. At the same time the robber, similarly attired as his decoys, assaults the armored car guard outside of the bank and flees with $400,000. The robber escapes by floating away in a yellow innertube on nearby Woods Creek, earning him the nickname "D. B. Tuber." A 28-year-old man, Anthony Curcio, is later convicted of the crime.

The ad went up on Craigslist late in September: "Laborers with landscaping experience wanted for a job in Monroe." Those who answered got an email back telling them to meet at 11 a.m. on September 30 in Monroe at two different spots -- an Albertson's parking lot and Eagle Park -- located near the intersection of Old Owen Road and Highway 2, and both right by a Bank of America branch. The ad also instructed the workers to wear safety glasses or equivalent eye protection, ventilator mask, yellow safety vest, and a long-sleeved shirt; follow-up emails instructed them to wear a blue shirt if possible, and to wait for the project manager once they arrived.  About a dozen men arrived at the two locations at the appointed hour and waited patiently outside in the mild morning for a job supervisor who never showed up. 

By 11:15, the men were beginning to realize they'd been scammed. Then they found out how badly.  While they were waiting for their ghost employer, another man nearby, similarly clad as his decoys in a mask and long-sleeved shirt, watched as an armored car guard, carrying canvas bags filled with cash, walked out of the bank and up to his armored vehicle parked nearby. At about 11:04 a.m. the robber raced up to the guard, sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, and snatched a bag of money from the guard.  He then turned and raced 100 yards across Old Owen Road and through some underbrush to Woods Creek, shedding his accessories as he ran. Two men who witnessed the robbery tried to chase the yegg down, but he leapt into the creek and vanished.

Floating to a Fleeting Freedom

There were conflicting reports as to just how the crook got away. People couldn’t really believe that he used an innertube (one witness said he swam away), but it was true. The thief hopped aboard a yellow innertube that he had stashed in the creek and floated to his escape; the innertube was later found about 200 yards away. The sheer audacity of the heist and subsequent escape quickly earned the robber the moniker "D. B. Tuber" in a nod to the infamous 1971 case involving the airplane-hijacking, parachute-escaping robber D. B. Cooper.

The Seattle P-I reported that a similar ploy with look-alike decoys was used in a 1999 movie, The Thomas Crown Affair, in which an art thief escapes with a masterpiece from a museum while security guards are distracted by several nearby look-alikes hired by the crook. Perhaps this gave the Tubed One the idea for the extras in the Monroe robbery, though the police responding to the real-life crime were not fooled by the decoys. But the Craigslist ad was an added touch, and the innertube getaway was all original; Seattle FBI spokeswoman Roberta Burroughs told The Herald (Everett) that she had never heard of a similar tactic in 15 years of investigating bank holdups.

The amount of money taken was initially not disclosed, but was later learned to be about $400,000. The armored-car guard was treated at the scene for exposure to pepper spray and released. The national media quickly picked up the story, giving the city of Monroe its 15 minutes of fame in the early autumn of 2008. But although the crime had been well planned, the felonious floater had left a clue or two, and thanks to a tip from a citizen and a DNA sample from the mask dropped by the robber as he fled, police arrested Anthony Curcio, 28, of Lake Stevens (Snohomish County) on November 3, 2008. In July 2009, Curcio was sentenced to six years in federal prison for the crime.

Curcio was released in 2013 and moved to Woodinville in King County. In 2014, he was reported to be living quietly as a stay-at-home father to his two children. In an interview with The Seattle Times that September, Curcio acknowledged his mistakes and said that since his release he had spoken at area schools in Washington and Oregon on the dangers of drug addiction, which he said led him into a spiral that eventually culminated in the robbery.

Sources:

Bankrobber recruited Craigslist decoys to confuse police

Wash. Man Pulls Off Robbery Using Craigslist, Pepper Spray

The Most Beautiful Suicide – Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the Empire State Building, 1947

This powerful photo taken by Robert C. Wiles was published as a full-page image in the 12 May 1947 issue of Life Magazine. It ran with the caption: “At the bottom of the Empire State Building the body of Evelyn McHale reposes calmly in grotesque bier, her falling body punched into the top of a car”. Evelyn McHale is probably the most famous Empire State Building suicide victim. The young and prety Evelyn leaped from the 86th-floor observatory in 1947 and landed on the roof of a United Nations limousine parked on the street below. Her calmly elegant demeanor, her legs crossed at the ankles, the way the car’s metal folded like sheets and framed her head and arms—perhaps these were the reasons that McHale’s death was given its title as “the most beautiful suicide.” When she died, she was still wearing her pearls and white gloves.

Born September 20, 1923 and one of seven siblings, she was a child in Washington D.C. when McHale’s mother left the household and her parents divorced. Her father, a bank examiner, retained custody of all the children. After high school, McHale became a WAC, stationed in Jefferson, Missouri. She made her way to New York City where she worked as a bookkeeper and lived quietly with her brother and sister-law in Baldwin, Long Island. She met her fiancé Barry Rhodes, a Pennsylvania college student just discharged from the Air Force, and was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Rhodes’ younger brother.

On April 30, 1947, Evelyn took the train from New York to Easton to visit Barry for his 24th birthday. All seemed well between the couple, and the next day, Barry kissed his fiance goodbye as she boarded the 7:00 AM train to Penn Station. “When I kissed her goodbye, she was happy and as normal as any girl about to be married.” Their wedding was set to be held at Barry’s brother’s home in Troy, New York, that June.

Around 10:40 am Patrolman John Morrissey, directing traffic at Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, noticed a white scarf floating down from the upper floors of the building. Moments later he heard a crash and saw a crowd converge on 34th street. Evelyn had jumped, cleared the setbacks, and landed on the roof of a United Nations Assembly Cadillac limousine parked on 34th street, some 200 ft west of Fifth Ave.

A photography student across the street, Robert C. Wiles, heard the loud crash of her body hitting the metal, and ran over too. Fortuitously, he had his camera and took a photo of her as she lay on the roof of the crumpled car. It was snapped just four minutes after she died and, despite the 1050-foot fall (320 m), her body looked intact. Remarkably Evelyn shows absolutely no evidence of trauma and appears disarmingly placid and composed – as if asleep. Around her, however, the crumpled sheet metal and broken glass show the violent destructive evidence of her jump. This apparent juxtaposition is what makes Wiles’ image so arresting and memorable. Some 60 years later it remains a haunting and affecting piece of photo-journalism.

According to reports she essentially “fell apart” when they moved her body. Her insides were basically liquefied. Later, on the observation deck, Detective Frank Murray found her tan (or maybe gray, reports differ) cloth coat neatly folded over the observation deck wall, a brown make-up kit filled with family pictures and a black pocketbook with the note which read:

“I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiance asked me to marry him in June. I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies.”

Her body was identified by her sister Helen Brenner and, according to her wishes, she was cremated. There is no grave.

Interesting fact:

Since the Empire State Building was constructed in 1931 some 36 people have jumped from the building, including 17 from the 86th floor observation deck. Evelyn was the 12th suicide from the building and the sixth to clear all of the setbacks. She was one of five people in a three week period to attempt suicide from the observation deck. In response a 10-ft wire mesh fence was installed and guards were trained to spot potential jumpers. After the barrier was installed people just jumped from other parts of the building, usually from office windows.
References:-

Ghosts and Ghouls

Grade 8 student's antibiotics work earns science fair gold

Abstract:

This project is about isolation of filamentous bacteria from soil and experimented how they are useful to humans. We isolated 10 bacteria and tested for bacterial killing activity and protease enzyme production. Four isolates were killing test bacteria, the chemical produced from this isolate can be further developed as an antibiotic. Few isolates were also found producing protease enzyme, can be used in detergent industries.

A P.E.I. national science fair winner has found that some micro-organisms in soil can help fight against two common infections.

Shruthi Bandi of Queen Charlotte School in Charlottetown won gold at the Canada-Wide Science Fair for her project on antibiotics. (Lindsay Carroll)

Shruthi Bandi, a grade 8 student from Queen Charlotte Intermediate, recently won gold in the junior division of the national science fair. Bandi tested a number of bacteria found in soil against Staph infections and Candida infections, and found some to be effective at fighting them.

"Everyone thinks micro-organisms are bad and they cause diseases, but I wanted to prove that micro-organisms are actually really good and they help fight diseases," said Bandi.

"I found that one of my isolates was able to fight against Staphylococcus aureus and two of my other isolates were able to fight against Candida albicans. I want to continue this experiment further because the results are really intriguing. So it would be cool to develop a drug or medicine that could fight against Staphylococcus aureus."

The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus causes what is commonly known as a staph infection. Candida albicans is a yeast infection.

Bandi also took home $4,000 along with her gold medal from the National science fair.