He kept looking over his shoulder. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. . Question: You were a consultant? 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. How Did David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers Steal More Than 27 febrero, 2023 . First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? 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. Then another. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. But in November, money ran low. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. She laughed for like 45 minutes. I missed my wife. That was great. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. See all of the stories here. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. He didnt even really question me. . When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Kelly called David at. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. 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. All were convicted. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. October was "a blast," he said. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. I don't blame him.". The name she gave the pup is apropos. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Now two NC men face prison. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. . 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. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Cool, I say. Some of that money is just gone. 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. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. ". To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. Yes, happy. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. 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.". TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and Its in the ether. Posted on . It was his goodbye. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. Mine did. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. ". 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. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. 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. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. 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. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. 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. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. What made her do it? The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. Everybody seemed stunned. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' That was the most painful truth to come to. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. You can garnish wages. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. And going to see the Mayan ruins. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. . and "I'm rich!". He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. You're an idiot.'". 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. He went deep-sea fishing. 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. They put up mauve wallpaper. The money was heavy. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. >> 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,. Careers. 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. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. 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. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. In real life: False. Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Then another. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". The van door opened. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. The figures can be astounding. "He was in tears. Looking for Kelly Loomis? Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 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. 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 next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. and "I love money!" 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. 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) I mentioned it to Kelly. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. She also must . Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. I was just going to get the money into the van. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. 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. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. 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. Careers | Loomis US All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. 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. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. In real life: False. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. . 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. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Kelly Loomis Facebook, Instagram & Twitter on PeekYou What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? 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. 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 version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. But it wasnt. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. By . He goes, My name is Bruno. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. They stocked a wine cellar. ". "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. shes now Miss USA. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? 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. 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. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. 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. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. It was late in 1996. Dependent care account. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. You've violated that trust. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia This is the person I counted as my friend. 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. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. "I was unhappy with my life. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. 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. In real life: False. Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Its hilarious. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. No regrets. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? 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.