Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. There were times when I drank really heavily.". That was the most painful truth to come to. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. In real life: False. Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? They bought a BMW roadster. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. Job Search - Career Portal - Dayforce HCM Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. . Kelly relayed his message to Steve. 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. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery - Strange Unexplained Mysteries Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. I mentioned it to Kelly. David didn't even know Steve's name. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. and "I'm rich!". 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. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. 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. . TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and But it wasnt. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. It affects everybody different. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Question: Should people go see this movie? 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) Loomis - Home 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 don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. 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. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. The van door opened. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. I missed my wife. 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 wouldn't do it. Not Ghantt. It was his goodbye. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Theres less security. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. I was burned out and just didn't know it. 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. I didn't think I had the guts. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. 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. In real life: Mostly true. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. 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. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. 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.. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. . FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. 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. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. His name was Corey. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. I studied up on the FBI. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. You can garnish wages. (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. It was the first Saturday in October. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. And then I could hear her laughing. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. Careers. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . . "I work construction. Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. 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. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. No regrets. An officer rang the doorbell. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. 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. The money was heavy. . In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. 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. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. "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 spent a solid hour moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an unmarked company van. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? And so, he told her, Google my name. And youre like, Come on parachute. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. . 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. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Military + Veterans. She also must . Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. Was that really what it was about? What made her do it? . Contact Us | Loomis US 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. Yes, happy. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Did you get paid? Not a documentary. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. Ghantt went on to explain that he left for his flight to Mexico with about $25,000, and that two or three deliveries of extra money was made to him by the man Chambers would pay to kill him. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. On Oct. 7, 1997, two FBI agents arrived at Kelly Campbell's home after two Loomis employees had told agents she and David had once dated. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. 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. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. 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. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly said. Seven Charged In $17M Heist - CBS News How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. All I needed was a change of pace.". 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. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. She could spend time with her children and parents. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. 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. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. 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.". When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. . There it was, "The Heist." Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. It was late in 1996. They paid for all of it in cash. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. There was, however, one problem with his plan. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Question: You were a consultant? 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. 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. 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.
Arkansas State Police Troop E, Does Nabisco Still Make 100 Calorie Packs, Arthur Paul Beal Heart Attack, Max Gilliam Parents Net Worth, Articles R
Arkansas State Police Troop E, Does Nabisco Still Make 100 Calorie Packs, Arthur Paul Beal Heart Attack, Max Gilliam Parents Net Worth, Articles R