Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. I mentioned it to Kelly. I'd probably change jobs. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Kelly drove David to the airport. 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. It was his goodbye. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Posted on . Mine did. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. On October 5, 1997, FBI agents gathered at the Loomis, Fargo & Co. warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, to watch a security videotape of a man loading stacks of cash into a pushcart and wheeling them from the vault. 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.. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Explain? . >> 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,. One of them tapped him on the back. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. The figures can be astounding. Where was Ghantt? I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. and "I love money!" Theres less security. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. I don't blame him.". Yes, happy. David complained it wasn't enough. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. It affects everybody different. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. He didn't want to abandon his parents. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. 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. 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. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? Its in the ether. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? One number is working in Campbells favor. . On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Not a documentary. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. 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. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. Kelly was no criminal. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. . Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? . There used to be a consulate in Cancun. I was just going to get the money into the van. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. I hear her typing. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. 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 audacity of the act was breathtaking. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Michele received the best gift of the night. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. . No regrets. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? Or that it was an inheritance. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. 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. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Industry leading Training and Development. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. 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. The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. The 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 October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. 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. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. 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. Not Ghantt. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. There was, however, one problem with his plan. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. And youre like, Come on parachute. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. Sweat soaked David's uniform. Eric watched. Our Benefits. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. 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 Mountain. Steven Chambers [Misc. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. ". . Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. So I was glad it was over. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. 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. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. "I work construction. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? Then another. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. 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. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. 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. In a word, "Teamwork. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. 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. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. 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) He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. I was burned out and just didn't know it. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. So I guess I have no regrets. ". No dry runs, no rehearsals. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Besides her prison sentence . We got this guy named Bruno. That was the most painful truth to come to. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. I studied up on the FBI. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. But in November, money ran low. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. Things were spiraling fast. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. 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.. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. I knew it was just a matter of time. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. And robbing a truck was dangerous. I would call us friends. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. 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. 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. You're an idiot.'". 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. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. 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 . Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Did you get paid? In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. 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. . By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Looking for Kelly Loomis? Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. In real life: Yes and no. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. I've got a good woman.". 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. . By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. ", "Even then . It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. . Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Dental plans . Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. 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. Question: You went to Mexico. I can take it.". In real life: False. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. In real life: True. In real life: True. 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. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. . Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Her case closes in 2025. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." 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. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. . Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." 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. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. . Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. Ghantt went on to explain that he rarely even looks at his debt statement to the government, but believes the IRS says he still owes them $3.8 million. He's a very likable person. His name was Corey. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. 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. Its everything thats coming north.. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. bannerlord best weapons to smith, logans funeral notices, behavioural framework for understanding mental distress,