I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. An officer rang the doorbell. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. And robbing a truck was dangerous. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. . By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Exciting. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. No hard feelings. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. She just called me up on the phone and said, Hey, lets meet one day after work. And then, we were talking and she says, How do you feel about robbing Loomis Fargo? Ghantt tells me. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. Some of the biggest numbers remaining on the Loomis collection board, as is the case with Campbell, belong to those who played the biggest role in the crime: David Ghantt, the Loomis employee who loaded all that money 2,800 pounds in all into the back of a company van before escaping to Mexico, has paid just under $50,000 of the $3.81 million he was assessed. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. Hes well thought-out. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . I hear her typing. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. ", "Even then . I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Looking for Kelly Loomis? I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Steve now needed a hit man. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. No dry runs, no rehearsals. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. FILE - Kelly Campbell, one of the 21 people convicted for their involvement in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist, awaits sentencing for her part in the theft at her mobile home near Mount Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. He flew in an ultra-light plane. . Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. He kept looking over his shoulder. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. The name she gave the pup is apropos. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. Dependent care account. Campbell was another employee at Loomis Fargo and she and Ghantt quickly struck up a relationship, one that Campbell denies was ever romantic though FBI evidence says otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. Careers. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. They sweated, though the night was cool. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Still, she wasn't happy. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. "But I had to know.". "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. They decorated their 6,000-square-foot stucco house with antiques, paintings and statues, including a six-foot wooden Indian that Michele had bought for $600. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years. "I" has one letter. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . One day, the two employees were in the break room and got to talking about the news of the day a massive bank heist that just occurred in Florida by someone at their company. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. You can seize property. You can garnish wages. Then another. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. Contact Us | Loomis US In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. and "I'm rich!". On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. His collection case closes in two years. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. Then another. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. In a word, "Teamwork. Steven Chambers [Misc. Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997 - History and Other Things "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Im a very deliberate person. He's a very likable person. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - legal-innovation.com Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. And youre like, Come on parachute. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. ", "I wouldn't do it. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. They stocked a wine cellar. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. "For the first year, they're all over you. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. 6-Year Sentence For Kelly Campbell | The Seattle Times They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. Ghantt fled to Mexico. Mine did. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. . That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4,. "I work construction. Its kind of like that. So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. I'd probably change jobs. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. I can take it.". real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - phnxathletica.com The cash was covered with dog food. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Thats one of my personality flaws. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." There was, however, one problem with his plan. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. FILE - Kelly Campbell, one of the 21 people convicted for their involvement in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist, awaits sentencing for her part in the theft at her mobile home near Mount. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. Military + Veterans. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar But the idea of all that money pulled at her. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. Kelly's company. That was the most painful truth to come to. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. And after two years, you're just a file." I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' Things were spiraling fast. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Industry leading Training and Development. She could spend time with her children and parents. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. DUMB & - The Washington Post His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. ". . Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. "It probably should bother me," he said. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. I was burned out and just didn't know it. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. But what did that mean? David thought about it. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. In real life: False. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. He didn't want to abandon his parents. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Eric Payne got out of prison in 2006 for his role in the heist and has since paid $11,357 on his $292,000 debt. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. . "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Where was Ghantt? "Love" has four. In real life: False. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. I wanted to get as far away as I could. . They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders.