When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. >> 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,. Some of that money is just gone. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] "It probably should bother me," he said. One number is working in Campbells favor. Im a very deliberate person. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. . Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. Looking for Kelly Loomis? Eric watched. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. . He learned to parachute. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. There it was, "The Heist." He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. That time in prison was actually good for me. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. Loomis - Home I missed my wife. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. . What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. That was great. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. I'd probably change jobs. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. 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. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. In real life: False. 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. and "I'm rich!". In real life: False. In real life: True. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. 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. And youre like, Come on parachute. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. "But I had to know.". Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. "Think of how many women would have stood by. 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. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Explain? Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items Industry leading Training and Development. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. . I knew it was just a matter of time. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. 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. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Its kind of like that. TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), Police: Officer Who Shot Black Man Retired 'In Bad Standing', 3 Kansas City Officers Who Were Shot Released From Hospital, 1 Killed When Business Jet Encounters Severe Turbulence. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. And I was thinking about just showing up there. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. "He was in tears. The pager entry was 1-4-3. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. . According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. The figures can be astounding. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft by 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. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." Question: You were a consultant? He kept looking over his shoulder. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. Steve now needed a hit man. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. That was the most painful truth to come to. All rights reserved. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. 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. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. You might as well go all the way now.". They cursed. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. 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. Thats one of my personality flaws. Theres no management around. Ghantt:It's a comedy. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. 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. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. ". This is the person I counted as my friend. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. "I was unhappy with my life. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Its everything thats coming north.. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. 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. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. "I thought he was goofing around.". After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. 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. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Is he telling the truth? Man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago now a 'normal guy Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Contact Us | Loomis US Careers | Loomis US Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. She laughed for like 45 minutes. . It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. I mentioned it to Kelly. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. In real life: False. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? His name was Corey. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. 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. 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. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. 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.. 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.. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. 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. 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. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. At that same time, Steve was growing sick of the calls to send more money to Ghantt, and was looking for a way to end that issue. You can garnish wages. His collection case closes in two years. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. 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. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. You have to remember that it's Hollywood and they'll take what was a minor event and they'll blow it up and make it as funny as they can.". Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Its hilarious. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. David trusted her. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. Michele received the best gift of the night. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. I studied up on the FBI. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. 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. No dry runs, no rehearsals. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. Then another. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. Or that it was an inheritance. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. 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. Mine did. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis.
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