They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. The case resurfaced in the federal courts on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte posted a public reminder in the case file of Loomis defendant Kelly Campbell that she had fallen behind in her restitution. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. His collection case closes in two years. Inside without a hiccup, he placedthe $17 million cash, in bags that altogether weighed more than 2,700 pounds, onto carts and into a van. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. On the night of October 4, the plan went into action. 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.. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] David Ghantt attends the after party for the Premiere Of Relativity Media's "Masterminds" on September 26, 2016 in Hollywood, California. The FBI investigation was aided by the gang's extravagant spending. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. Websacramento drug bust; montage los cabos wedding cost. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. That was great. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. Was Loomis Fargo heist real? Webbird adoption adelaide real life kelly campbell loomis fargo. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. But his partners soon began to get greedy and were spending large amountswith Chambers and his wife, Michelle, even buying an exclusive mansion in cash. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. 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. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), DeSantis Awards $100M for Hurricane Erosion Recovery Efforts, Judge Orders Release of Video of Inmate Who Mutilated Self, Indiana Man Charged After Son in Diaper Points Gun at People, California Do Not Sell My Personal Information Request. David Ghantt struck up a relationship with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell, and they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. I mentioned it to Kelly. A Comprehensive Guide. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. He became the target of a nationwide FBI manhunt and was arrested five months later near the Mexican resort of Cozumel. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. 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. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Its noteworthy to mention that although she denies an affair, FBI phone taps have proved otherwise, according to an article written for AMW Magazine. Chambers and his wife also made some cash payments on a few cars. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Chambers, it turned out, became the biggest source of evidence for the FBI. Eventually, Ghantt called in from Mexico, seeking more money, and the FBI officially recognized Chambers as a co-conspirator. Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. He was like OK, yeah, we can do that, she recalled. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Ghantt and Campbell couldnt get to Mexico from Columbia, as there were no international flights being offered out of the hub, which they would have known, had they called ahead. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. The details of the heist itself, coupled with the missteps the crew made after stealing the money, attracted the attention of writers and movie producers. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997, 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. They called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. One number is working in Campbells favor. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. His partners, who planned to stay behind, agreed to send him his full cut of the money after the heat from investigators had died down. Four more people were also charged with laundering, bringing the grand total to more than twenty. The U.S. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. ", After successfully tracing Ghantt's phone call, FBI agents coordinated with Mexican police to arrest Ghantt on March 1, 1998, at Playa del Carmen, a city near Cancun. Items included a velvet Elvis painting, 1998 BMW, 17-foot motorboat and Harley Davidson. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. Campbell and Chambers made themselves easy to catch, what with their lavish spending. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. As he later recalled about his life before the 1997 heist that changed his life forever: Prior to, I would have never even considered it but one day life kinda slapped me in the face. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. 7 Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. WebHolding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo Its kind of like that. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Im a very deliberate person. Galifianakis is game for anything, including eating a dead tarantula (who knew tarantulas were filled with caramel syrup? [1], This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Philip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.[2]. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. While making only eight dollars an hour in his role as supervisor, Ghantt decided it was time to do something: I was unhappy with my life. FBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Join the 119,947 smart Charlotteans that receive our daily newsletter. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". Ask below and we'll reply! 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. Meanwhile, Ghantt would take $50,000, as much as could legally be carried across the border without questions, and flee to Mexico. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. You can seize property. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. WebWas Loomis Fargo heist real? You see, theres a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. The only defendant to not plead guilty, Chambers's attorney Jeff Guller, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to eight years in prison. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. 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. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey, the film stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Jason Sudeikis. But before thehit could be carried out, the FBI swooped in and arrested Ghantt and the others. Scary. Said Ghantt, one day life kinda slapped me in the face. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. David Ghantt was the vault supervisor for Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored cars, which managed the transportation of large sums of cash between banks in North Carolina. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. followed by "Don't worry, it is not drug money," the bank filled out a suspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. Chambers and two accomplices, making their way to Vale in order to put the barrels in his home, left behind the staggering $3.3 million that didnt fit and the two security tapes in the Loomis Fargo van that Ghantt had driven. I studied up on the FBI. Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. For the New York State assemblyman, see. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian. You can read more at, Dilworth Coffee is coming to the Fifth Third Center. The first is that this was the same year, 1997, that the largest cash robbery in history took place within the same company. In the end, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo heist. Campbell was receptive and brought the idea up to Ghantt. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. I loved it. They lived lavishly: Mastermind Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) moved from a mobile home to a large home in a gated community, paid for in cash alerting authorities. There was one problem: he forgot to remove the tape from the third security camera. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. See all of the stories here. According to an Observer article, signs point to Campbells involvement stemming from the desire to experience what it was like to be rich. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Its hilarious. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. The figures can be astounding. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. 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. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the heist of the century, was by far the largest diamond heist.Antwerp diamond heist. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. Either way, intothe picture walks Steve Chambers and a group of friends that would set the plan in motion. As you probably know, its loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. WebCampbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and While she made small deposits at first, she became more reckless, eventually making a deposit of thousands of dollars in cash, telling the teller not to worry: Its not drug money.. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Product details Publisher : John F Blair Pub (October 1, 2005) What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Hes very articulate. Hed be in contact. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. His new life in Mexico had begun. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. 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. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Campbellwho was married herselfrepresented something new and exciting. In addition to his phone calls with Ghantt, Chambers began extravagantly spending the money, even though the co-conspirators had agreed to lay low for a year or two. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such as scuba diving and parasailing. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. Ghantt didnt actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. I work construction. But as he later recalled to the media, as soon as he stepped through those big-box doors, he realized he was flush with cash, and he didnt need to shop at Walmart ever again. 6 Is Kelly Campbell married to ghantt? Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? cheap beachfront property for sale in italy. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. All rights reserved. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. 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. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Axios Charlotte is a local news initiative. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. They received sentences and probation ranging from several years to 11 years and three months in federal prison for Steve Chambers, who was also fined more than $3,500,000. Ghantt was caught on videotape loading large amounts of cash into a truck. 4 What is the largest armored car robbery? No dry runs, no rehearsals. 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.. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. Having only brought $50,000 in cash, however, Ghantt soon found himself short on funds. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the s By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantt's personal safety; they had learned that Chambers had plotted to have Ghantt killed in a murder for hire scheme using a "hit man" named Michael McKinney. We were two paychecks away from being homeless at any given time.. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $30.5 million in 2020). WebThe Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! hilary farr design assistant 9, Juin, 2022 Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. 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. Dozens of FBI agents everywhere. Heist: The Oddball Crew behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Jeff Diamant 12 Audio CD 9 offers from $5.86 About the Author Jeff Diamant covered the heist for the Charlotte Observer. Officials suspected that the extravagant purchases stemmed from the fact that all involved got far more money than they anticipated and literally didnt know how to spend or get rid of it, which is perhaps backed up by the fact that Chambers wife once walked into a Belmont Wachovia with $200,000 in a briefcase wanting to know how much she could deposit without the bank reporting it to officials. Neighbors and friends noticed the suspicious activity and reported the members to the FBI. Authorities said they hired a man named Michael McKinney to meet up with Ghantt and kill him, under the guise that he was planning to give Ghantt more of the money he was owed. Why do we feel its so necessary to treat people like this, to say, OK, well just ruin the rest of your life because you made a bad decision., Punishment should not last a lifetime. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. So with the assistance of a co-worker and possible love interest as well as a small-time criminal, David Ghantt pulled off the then-second-largest cash heist in U.S. history. Then check out another bank robber who inspired a movie, John Wojtowicz. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. It affects everybody different. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. And so this third camera caught everything that happened next. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, had never been in trouble with the law. Chambers got 11 years. Its really just a matter of timing, more than anything. And she says, How much do you think wed get out of there? I said, Ten to 15 million. But I didnt really know.. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. He goes, My name is Bruno. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. He was released in 2006. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. All rights reserved. By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. Together with his wife, Chambers bought a new luxury home (upgrading from his mobile home), a BMW Z3, and some extravagant furnishings. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell and other members of the ring were arrested. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt.
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