The trainee didn't know to check to make sure it was closed. Heist! A customs inspector, asking routine questions of bus passengers, focused her attention on him when his answers reminded her of Tommy Flanagan, the pathological-liar character played by Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live. 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. The corporation handled armored transportation, ATM maintenance and other cash handling services, and had millions of currency stashed in the vault of the North Carolina branch. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.'. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. Winds light and variable. be blocked or permanently banned without warning. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. Driving away, he said he felt a mix of fear, confidence and excitement that he outsmarted the FBI. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing He ejected the two VCR tapes that he knew had recorded him stealing the money, took them, and prepared to leave. Steve had hired a bodyguard named Mike McKinney. In preparation for what lay ahead, David had backed an unmarked company Ford Econoline van near the vault entrance and opened the van's back door. Twenty years ago this Wednesday, a small group of people stole $17 million in cash from the main vault of a Loomis Fargo & Co. armored-car warehouse in west Charlotte. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Jim Gronquist was Campbells defense attorney. This website uses cookies and some data tracking to improve your experience and serve adverts, We assume you're ok with this, you can opt-out if you wish. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. she asked again. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Spunk. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. He wanted to leave his wife for her, and Kelly, who also was married, let him think she wanted the same. Before the robber left Loomis Fargo, he made a trip to the managers office to remove two surveillance tapes in order to conceal his identity. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. VERDICT The first edition of this work was published in 2002. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning, and called the police. Sure to be in demand as the book has been made into a movie, Masterminds, to be released in August.Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. You can garnish wages. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. There was a book published in 2002 as well, by author Jeff Diamant called,Heist! 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. It was the second-largest. What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. 'When you have money, you just have different problems': The Loomis Her case closes in 2025. In addition to their extravagant spending, Michelle Chambers made the mistake of loudly asking a bank teller how much cash she could deposit in her account without it being reported to the feds, and then said, its not drug money.. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. "Don't double-cross us," the woman on the phone told David Ghantt. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. The Loomis Fargo Heist Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. Thank you! And Kelly thought he was funny. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 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 Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 Growing up, David's family went to Disney World, sent him to religious school, and shopped at places he couldn't afford as a self-supporting adult. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. The towns booming construction industry attracts workers from around the country. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. The world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. They didnt expect it.. The Star-Ledger, 06/15/2015On October 4, 1997, an amateurish gang robbed Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, NC of $17 million, the second largest heist in U.S. history. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. 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. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. kelly campbell masterminds - clydeautorepairs.co.uk Steve decided to send his cousin, Nathan with money down to Mexico as a ruse, while Mike the bodyguard would follow behind to take care of Ghantt. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. David knew this was important from having followed the recent news about a Florida man who had brazenly committed the biggest heist from an armored-car company in United States history, a loner named Philip Noel Johnson, who also had worked for Loomis. 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. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. Then they returned it. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. In fact, he had recently finished a book about the FBI and felt it provided insight into the agency's investigative techniques, insight he thought could help the little gang succeed. Thirty years! Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. More calls between the two men, and also between Steve and Kelly Campbell, made it clear that the group was starting to turn on David Ghantt. Action News Jax facebook feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax twitter feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax youtube feed(Opens a new window), JSO K9 escapes kennel, bites three people in Jacksonville neighborhood, To know Nancy was to love Nancy: St. Johns County woman killed in suspected DUI crash, JSO says missing child alert results in deadly drowning, Senator proposes bill giving state emergency jurisdiction over custody of kids with trans parents, Florida woman accused of killing terminally ill husband released from jail. 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. Campbell and her husband had always been just scraping by, however in the weeks following the robbery, the two seemed to have more money than they've ever had. You Save 23%. David and Kelly had driven to Rock Hill, South Carolina, and used the documents to obtain a fake ID that David would also rely on after the theft. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. I appreciate your kind words! You have permission to edit this article. 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,. of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. 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. But if you did, youll never forget it. 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. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. She had attitude. "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) ", Johnson said, "Yeah, that's it. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. 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. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com 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. She had attitude. 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. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. We are happy to work with other website publishers. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. 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 . A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. The movie was called Masterminds and stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day.. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. just generally being a jerk. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar 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. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Its attracted workers like Ghantt. Thank you so much. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. David and Steve had never met, but Steve had already secured somebody else's birth certificate and social security card for him and given it to Kelly to pass along. America's Dumbest Heist! (True Crime Documentary) | Real Stories Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. >> 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.. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. He couldn't understand the gap, why he wasn't more successful, why he couldn't at least match the financial stability of his father, who earned a comfortable salary driving a truck. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. The October 4 shift was lasting longer than expected, due to delays involving pickups and deliveries. Change). In Reservoir Dogs, released just five years earlier, the pawns in a robbery knew each other only by assigned colors: Mr. The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. "What would it take to make you do it?". Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. They could talk about anything, even topics he couldn't discuss with his wife. 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) Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? More than 2 million dollars are still missing to this day. Sunny. Loomis Fargo defendants owe as much as they stole in 1997 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. That was taking the long view. WOMAN GETS TIME IN LOOMIS HEIST - Greensboro News and Record They Had 17 Million Dollars and No Sense at All - AMW Magazine Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). But this time on the phone, Kelly wasn't joking. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? But he wasn't finished. 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. The reason David didn't know Steve's last name was so they couldn't identify each other to the police or FBI, should cops or G-men ever enter the picture. Her case closes in 2025. Who was she to be pressuring him? Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com 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. 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. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. 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 had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Steve's a serious guy.". 'When you have money, you just have different problems': The Loomis People dont seem to understand human nature. Another time, the day after a Christmas in the late 1980s, David and some friends planted all the discarded Christmas trees from the area in one neighbor's front yard. 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. 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. The police almost immediately called theFBI, since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. (LogOut/ Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Living with his wife, Tammy, in a mobile home, he had longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood that had come to seem luxurious, a pipe dream for him now. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. It just happened to fall on my desk.. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. David was thin six-foot-one, one hundred sixty-five pounds and heaving the stacks onto the cart, pushing the cart toward the vault door, and then emptying its contents into the van was exhausting. He was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing cubes of cash and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. 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The loot would later be divided among David, Kelly, and Steve. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. These cookies do not store any personal information. Then one day, while reviewing his and Tammy's credit card bill, he did some quick math and realized that even if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take thirty years to pay. It all seemed unfair. Now one of the most wanted men in America with the FBI hot on his heels, Ghantt must figure out how to get his money, get away from a hit man, and get even.