David was excited, jabbering about their future together. ". I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Ghantt fled to Mexico. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. Steve led the planning. You can seize property. Explain? White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. No regrets. An officer rang the doorbell. In real life: False. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. 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. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Its kind of like that. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items 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. 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. 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. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. 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. Contact Us | Loomis US At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. She laughed for like 45 minutes. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. Exciting. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Kelly Campbell - Wikipedia Sweat soaked David's uniform. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. ", "I wouldn't do it. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 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. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. ". I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. More agents waited outside to arrest them. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. 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. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. . Im a very deliberate person. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Ghantt:It's a comedy. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com . David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. DUMB & - The Washington Post Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. In real life: False. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. The cash was covered with dog food. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. . His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. Question: Should people go see this movie? 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. 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 drove David to the airport. "I" has one letter. And youre like, Come on parachute. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. 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. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). Mine did. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. . "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. 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. In real life: Mostly true. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. And then I could hear her laughing. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. "Think of how many women would have stood by. The real 'Masterminds' 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. David trusted her. Cool, I say. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. That was great. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. 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. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. . That time in prison was actually good for me. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Then another. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Eric watched. But it wasnt. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. 6-Year Sentence For Kelly Campbell | The Seattle Times If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. "Love" has four. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. . When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. His new life in Mexico had begun. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. 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. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. "I missed my family. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News They bought a BMW roadster. She could visit friends. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. I knew it was just a matter of time. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. In real life: True. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. I don't blame him.". 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. 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." TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. I can take it.". Careers | Loomis US 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.. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. So I was glad it was over. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. We got this guy named Bruno. 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. And going to see the Mayan ruins. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. He couldn't talk.". They were the butt of a national joke. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery - Strange Unexplained Mysteries 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. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997 Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. "I thought he was goofing around.". 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. He goes, My name is Bruno. 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. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. This time, David told McKinney the truth. 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. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997 - History and Other Things Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. I mentioned it to Kelly. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. He gave the rest to Kelly. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. Dependent care account. This is the person I counted as my friend. 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. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. That was the most painful truth to come to. 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. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. ". And I was thinking about just showing up there. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. . 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. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. They Had 17 Million Dollars and No Sense at All - AMW Magazine Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. You can garnish wages. 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. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. It was his goodbye. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. October was "a blast," he said. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. I loved it. Question: You were a consultant? She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. 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. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. ", "Even then . 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. Still, she wasn't happy. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News In real life: False. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' . There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. "He was in tears. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. The van door opened. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. I was just going to get the money into the van. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Dental plans . Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. You're an idiot.'". "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. They decorated their 6,000-square-foot stucco house with antiques, paintings and statues, including a six-foot wooden Indian that Michele had bought for $600. 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. Why fans love it. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. and "I'm rich!". This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. 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. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. So I guess I have no regrets. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. 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. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte.
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