They put up mauve wallpaper. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. This time, David told McKinney the truth. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast.
Seven Charged In $17M Heist - CBS News The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. 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.. 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. I missed my wife. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. >> 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,. Hes very articulate. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. . If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. 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.
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it.
Kelly Campbell - Wikipedia A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Then another. 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. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. 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. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. 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. Eric watched. . 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. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. They sweated, though the night was cool. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. The theft at the time the second-largest cash robbery in U.S. history has been the brunt of mocking movies and books, mostly on how the thieves, who had little money to begin with, could not control their spending habits once they did. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson.
The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS We got this guy named Bruno. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction.
The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film 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 and happy. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). "I thought he was goofing around.". As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. I was just going to get the money into the van. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. 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. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. Did you get paid? First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. . The money was heavy. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. 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. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. "I work construction. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. Question: Should people go see this movie? I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. . 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. ". After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. See all of the stories here. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards.
. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. Where was Ghantt? Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Is he telling the truth? Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. 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. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. 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. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. I didn't think I had the guts. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. She was a wife and mother with two children. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. I hope everyone has moved on. Or that it was an inheritance. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Its in the ether. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. . "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. 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. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. (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. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. She laughed for like 45 minutes. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. Once in a lifetime, Murdaugh verdict sends a Lowcountry message: No one is above the law | Opinion, Charlotte Waffle House found with live roach, unclean equipment during health inspection. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . 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. Dental plans . Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. The Columbia airport had no available flights. 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. 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. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. 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. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself.
The real 'Masterminds' 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. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment.
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - phnxathletica.com You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. 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.
DUMB & - The Washington Post Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. 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. And going to see the Mayan ruins. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. In real life: True. . Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. No hard feelings. David thought about it. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. 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. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. I was burned out and just didn't know it. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. 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.
How Did David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers Steal More Than October was "a blast," he said. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. I knew it was just a matter of time. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. And youre like, Come on parachute. Ghantt fled to Mexico. 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. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. You can seize property. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. Hes well thought-out. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. It was the first Saturday in October. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Question: You went to Mexico. 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. 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. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. No dry runs, no rehearsals. "I" has one letter. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job.
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. 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 . and "I'm rich!". There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. I loved it. All I needed was a change of pace.". Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. David didn't even know Steve's name. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. She could visit friends. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. David complained it wasn't enough. That was great. They were the butt of a national joke. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. 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. When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun..
The real story behind the second largest bank heist in history, which A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. 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 can garnish wages. 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. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? . Now two NC men face prison. She could spend time with her children and parents. Our Benefits. . 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. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. His name was Corey. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. .
Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 ". About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. ". 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. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Kelly drove David to the airport. . He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. In a word, "Teamwork. 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. "But I had to know.". He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. . They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. She also must . It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review.
Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft by You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. . As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? And robbing a truck was dangerous. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997.
Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . 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) "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998.
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