Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. 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. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. . Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. 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. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. 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. And so, he told her, Google my name. 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. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. Explain? . Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. I studied up on the FBI. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Careers. The Columbia airport had no available flights. 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. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? Dental plans . Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. In a word, "Teamwork. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. 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.. 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. Question: You went to Mexico. 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. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. 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. October was "a blast," he said. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Just head on out. And so, he did. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. "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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Michele received the best gift of the night. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. But in November, money ran low. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. 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. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. One of them tapped him on the back. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. 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. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. All were convicted. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. 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. "For the first year, they're all over you. 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. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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 tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. 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,. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Still, she wasn't happy. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? She could visit friends. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Then another. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Question: You were a consultant? 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. 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. 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. He kept looking over his shoulder. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. He didnt even really question me. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. All rights reserved. She declined to take a lie-detector test. He couldn't talk.". This time, David told McKinney the truth. They put up mauve wallpaper. Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' 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. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. In real life: False. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. 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. . Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? You can seize property. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? I was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. In real life: Mostly true. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. The cash was covered with dog food. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. "I work construction. This is the person I counted as my friend. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. I would call us friends. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Were others involved? Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. 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. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Then another. Visit us at Loomis.us. I mentioned it to Kelly. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. At 7:45, David had finished loading. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Exciting. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. . By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. ", "I wouldn't do it. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. . "Love" has four. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. 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. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Its hilarious. Its in the ether. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. 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. . 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. "You" has three. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. . How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. 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. Not Ghantt. "But I had to know.". Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. By . . Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". 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. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. 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. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. It changes you. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. He's a very likable person. She also must . Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. And robbing a truck was dangerous. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. 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.. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. . They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Then another. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. He goes, My name is Bruno. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. Scary. shes now Miss USA. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. In real life: True. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Steven Chambers [Misc. 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. 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. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. I was just going to get the money into the van. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. 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.. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. 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. 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. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. . Thats one of my personality flaws. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. . ". In real life: False. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. 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." >> 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,. David thought about it. kellis@gastongazette.com 0:04 0:57 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it.
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