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Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. Or that it was an inheritance. 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. Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft by 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. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 There it was, "The Heist." They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. 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. The van door opened. 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. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. 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.". "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. 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. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. 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. Its in the ether. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. All rights reserved. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. . He kept looking over his shoulder. They bought a BMW roadster. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. It was late in 1996. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. 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. 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. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. 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. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Still, she wasn't happy. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. . It was the first Saturday in October. ". They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. 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. 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. Not Ghantt. 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 didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. 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. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Visit us at Loomis.us. . Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Exciting. One of them tapped him on the back. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. 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. His collection case closes in two years. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS That was the most painful truth to come to. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. I loved it. The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. 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) The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. 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.. Him and I still talk every now and then. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. They Had 17 Million Dollars and No Sense at All - AMW Magazine Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. 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." . The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. Explain? Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. 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. 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. 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. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? There had been no signs. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. He went deep-sea fishing. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. Theres no management around. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. 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. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. 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. Why fans love it. Steve now needed a hit man. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Heres your money. Then he turns around and leaves., The problem was, it was nowhere near the amount Ghantt had expected: Im looking at it, and theres maybe $8,000. Then another. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. They paid for all of it in cash. 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. You're an idiot.'". Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. 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. Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items 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. This is the person I counted as my friend. In real life: False. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. 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. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. "Love" has four. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. In real life: False. You can seize property. Kelly's company. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. He flew in an ultra-light plane. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. Posted on . 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. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. "He was in tears. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. . He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. 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 mentioned it to Kelly. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. I've got a good woman.". And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. 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. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. This time, David told McKinney the truth. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. They were the butt of a national joke. 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 . Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. Dependent care account. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. It changes you. The money was heavy. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. I studied up on the FBI. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - legal-innovation.com real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. 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. >> 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,. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . Eric watched. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. No regrets. Its everything thats coming north.. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. We got this guy named Bruno. In real life: False. She could spend time with her children and parents. 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.. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. But it wasnt. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Steven Chambers [Misc. 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. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. 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. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. Were others involved? Looking back at the Loomis heist - Gaston Gazette Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. 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. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. 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. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. And so, he told her, Google my name. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? 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. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. 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. Cool, I say. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. "For the first year, they're all over you. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. 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. . ". Was that really what it was about? David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. 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. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. 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. 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. In real life: Yes and no. 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. Yes, happy. 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. I would call us friends. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. David thought about it. In real life: False. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. See all of the stories here. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. 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. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. Question: You went to Mexico. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. 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.