. Things were spiraling fast. 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. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. October was "a blast," he said. They stocked a wine cellar. 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. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Military + Veterans. 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. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. 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) The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. Ghantt was working as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte in 1997, earning about $8 an hour and tired of his humdrum life. 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 just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Some of that money is just gone. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. David complained it wasn't enough. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. 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. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. . In real life: True. . 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. 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. 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. I've got a good woman.". A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. 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. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. 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. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. In real life: False. But it wasnt. David trusted her. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. 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. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. 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. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Was Queen Charlotte Black? In real life: False. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. 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. >> 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,. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. 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. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. 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. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? I hear her typing. Then another. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. They paid for all of it in cash. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. And robbing a truck was dangerous. In real life: Mostly true. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Just head on out. And so, he did. 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. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. ". The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. 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. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. 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. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. Eric watched. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Ghantt:It's a comedy. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Kelly drove David to the airport. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. At 7:45, David had finished loading. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. I knew it was just a matter of time. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. . Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. kellis@gastongazette.com 0:04 0:57 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. "You" has three. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. 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. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Kelly was lying. Everybody seemed stunned. ". Not Ghantt. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? All I needed was a change of pace.". According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Hes well thought-out. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. Now two NC men face prison. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. . The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. and "I love money!" Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Its everything thats coming north.. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. In real life: Yes and no. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. He went deep-sea fishing. . Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. 27 febrero, 2023 . Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. But what did that mean? Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. Its kind of like that. ". You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. 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. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. 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. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. Ghantt spent a solid hour moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an unmarked company van. 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. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. The money was heavy. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. . 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. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. Not a documentary. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. 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. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. 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. 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. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? This is the person I counted as my friend. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. She was devastated, Diamant said. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Theres no management around. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. His new life in Mexico had begun. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. . Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Question: You were a consultant? 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 . Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. In real life: False. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. So I was glad it was over. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. 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. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. You can garnish wages. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Careers. Besides her prison sentence . I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. "It probably should bother me," he said. 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. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. 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. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. All rights reserved. Question: Should people go see this movie? I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Mine did. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning.
