Customer Reviews

Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man Who Found $1 Million

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Another great book from Mark Bowden. But this time, I listened to the book as the author narrates it himself. He does a great job delivering this fascinating tale that he briefly covered as a young newspaper reporter. Later in his career, he did a retrospective series about the episode that became the basis for the very forgettable movie starring John Cusack, Money for Nothing. Bowden does a terrific job of reconstructing for the reader (or listener) the very private lives and moments of the story's principles. While few of the characters are very sympathetic, they nonetheless are, at least presented by Bowden, fascinating to follow. It's no Blackhawk Down, but it's a well-woven yarn.

I received this as a Christmas present, and what a neat present it was!
I started reading this obviously fictional book about this unemployed meth addict Philadelphian dockworker named Joey who finds $1.2 million in unmarked unsequential $100 bills laying on the street -- a $1.2 million which literally fell off the back of the truck. He immediately enters into all these improbable and zany adventures, capped by an arrest at the airport as he's getting ready to fly to Acapulco! During his trial, his attorney opts for a temporary insanity defense, which the jury buys because the guy's buddies testify he "went bananas" for a week when he found the money.
Yet this comedy has an edge to it -- the tragedy of "men who were raised to go to work out on the docks like their fathers and uncles and older brothers, only there's no work for them on the docks anymore, and there's nothing else they know how to do.... It's a story about addiction, about the belief that there is a shortcut to true happiness."
When I got to the Epilogue, I was quite surprised to find that this obviously fictional story was true! The author tells what happened after the trial, and how Joey's story was literally Disneyfied -- and how his good fortune turned out to be his tragic ruin.
The typeface used is a bit distracting since there is no "1" -- and unlike ancient typewriters, instead of the small "L," the capital "I" is used: thus $100 is $I00 and 314 Dunfor Street is 3I4 Dunfor Street.
This is a great book because it encompasses universal themes -- Joey is a Greek tragic figure whose internal flaws, despite his good fortune, emerge to undo him. Many of us, likewise, have envisioned what we would do if sudden riches came upon us.

Can there be such a thing as a funny true crime story?

Mark Bowden answers the question with a solid yes, with this tale of down and out Philidelphians whos stumble upon a box of armored car money.

It s aquick read that takes time to delve into the backgrounds of the major charachters enough to make us sympathetic to them and even pitty them at times. Well reported and not overwritten, which must have been ahrd because some of the charachters cried out for a lot of sterotypical descriptions.

This a true story about one of those weird occurences in life that everyone hopes for in the back of their minds: A million dollars falls out of an armored car and some lucky stiff find it, grabs it, and takes it home. Unmarked bills! Untraceable bills! You could hide it for a long while, couldn't you? You could find a way to bank it, spend it, whatever, without anyone else knowing a thing, couldn't you? And, of course, you could give it back. Well, that's you. The drug addicted fool who actually found the money did none of these things. He created a bizarre whirwind of motion, but, in the end, he lost it all.
Mark Bowden tells this story fast and he tells it very well. You can rip through it in a night or two. It will be time well used.

I can think of lots of things I'd do if I suddenly found a million bucks, but going on a meth bender and blabbing to total strangers isn't even in the top ten. "Black Hawk Down" scribe Bowden dissects an amazing-but-true tale from his own South Philly backyard, where in 1981 speed freak Joey Coyle stumbled upon a carton of cash that literally fell off an armored car. From there Coyle made every bonehead move possible, from divvying his loot with a mobster to spilling drug-induced confessions. In fiction Coyle would wind up on a tropical isle, but the real tragicomic ending is still compelling, if only because it happened to some other schmuck. This account definitely evokes a hundred 'what-ifs' in every reader's mind.

Book was about my second cousin who was a year older than I. My Coyle grandmother and his Coyle grandfather were sibblings. I lived in NE Phila and he lived in South Philly. Coyle Family was big so we had enough trouble knowing all our first cousins let alone our second cousins. The 70s and 80s was a bad period for teenagers and those of us coming back from Nam in the mid 70s.

The only thing I disbuted in the book is Joey did not kill himself, he was shut up by someone else who had most of the treasure he found and gave away? It was not difficult to find a mob connection in Philly (Italian or Irish mobs). Philly neighborhoods are closely integrated and everybody knew who were cops and who were gang or mob figures, and those that are full of it.

I liked the book enough to purchase the movie, but it has not arrived yet.

This is a very good and quick reading book that I highly recommend. City people from most big city neighborhoods could relate to people they know who were similar to Joey.

Enjoy

This is a true story about something that lurks in everyone's daydreams: What if I found a million dollars? What would I do with it? The man in this book DID find a million, in untraceable bills.
What would you do with that kind of money? Hide it for a long, long while, then carefully spend it? Find a way to sneak it into various bank accounts? Give it back to the armored car company that lost it? You would do something with it, right? Well, that's you. The fool who found it in real life created a whirlwind of motion, plotting, and bragging that resulted in virtually nothing. Yeah, he lost the money.
Mark Bowden tells this story fast and he tells it very well. You can rip through it in a night or two. It will be time well spent.

I had watched the film Money for Nothing years before ever reading this book. The difference between the film and the true story is classic example of how Hollywood is afraid of showing the reality of a situation or an unhappy ending. The film version is a total cop-out and I'm actually glad it bombed at the box office because it was not true to the story. Even if the true Joey Coyle lived to see the film (he killed himself three weeks before the theatrical release), he would have been disappointed.

The book itself was an easy and quick read (I finished it in about 6 hours), and it was fascinating enough to not at all lose interest in the story itself. My only real complaint is the fact that it's pretty forgettable once you finish it. A sad but entertaining story is well brought to light in this book, but I can see myself forgetting all about it in a couple weeks.

Don't expect "Black Hawk Down"--this is a story about bad choices and bad results. Bowden tells his story with skill and pace, romanticizing the premise without romaticizing his central character, the man who is doomed the moment he finds his treasure...two bags filled with over $1 million in unmarked bills. Bowden's honesty kept this from veering into the hype of similarly themed books (has anyone read the book that Catch Me If You Can was based upon?). The book is slim, but held my attention.

The Book Finders Keepers is about a young man named Joey Coyle. This twenty-eight year old boy was addicted to a drug called methamphetamine. It all began on February 26, 1981. Joey woke up in his bed at his house on Front Street in South Philly. This day started off just like all the others, but Joey didn't know that this day would change his life forever.

Joey and his friends, John Behlau and Jed Pennock went for a ride to a dealer's house, since Joey ran out of drugs and was getting quite nervouse. When they got to the house they found he wasn't home and decided to take back roads home. as they drove past the Purolator Armored Car Company on Swanson Street, they noticed a little yellow tub in the middle of the road. Inside the tub were two big white canvas bags. Joey was always picking up things so they stopped and Joey got out picked the two bags out from the tub and read the tags on them "Federal Reserve Bank".

The boys went back home and opened the bags. they were shocked at what they found. The two canvas bags held a total of 1.2 million dollars! The most money Joey and his friends had ever seen! So joey being a normal human being had to tell all his friends, his girlfriend and his family. Soon almost everyone he knew, about him finding all the money. That next day the incident was on the news. THe T.V. announced 1.2 million dollars fell off the back of a Purolator Armored Car yesterday afternoon. As soon as Joey heard this he started felling anxious, nervous, and scared people would be after him to take what he called "his money". After all he had found it and in his mind the rule was "Finders Keepers"

Joey got so scared of getting caught he asked his friend
Carl Masi if he could help him. Masi said he could ask his friend, one of the most notorious organized crime leaders in Philadelphia, Mario "Sonny" Riccobene. Masi said Sonny could take the bills to Las Vegas and get them broke down to smaller bills, since all of it was in 100's. Joey gives him 1/3 of the money and hides the rest in different places.

The story gets out and the police start to catch up with Joey. Joey tries to get out of the country with the help of a friend and fly to Acapulco, Mexico. Just as Joey is getting on the plane the FBI caught him. Joey is charged with theft, conspiracy to commit theft and receiving stolen property.

In the trial the defense pleads insanity and the prosecution persist on the charges. Will Joey get out on insanity or will the prosecution get through to the jury? Will all the money be returned?

The story has a tragic ending because it was all too much for a simple kid from South Philly. Through a sequence of events, this day started Joey spiraling out of control. He no longer could make any rational choices. It was all about the money that he thought was a gift from God and hyis father who had died years before.

I would recommend this book because it shows what is wrong and right and puts down the line. It also shows that any type of theft is wrong even if you are insane. I really liked this book and I hope that if you like this review you might read this book.