RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Steve's a serious guy.". David told Kelly they would have to control themselves and not spend the money too quickly, because the FBI could electronically trace a suspect's recent spending activity through bank papers, credit card records, and land transactions. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago now a 'normal guy Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la He loves his motorcycle and enjoys going fishing and, while hes sorry for the past, hes not ashamed to talk about it. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or He deserved better. 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Carolina House GOP again modifies rules on veto overrides, Murdoch says some Fox hosts 'endorsed' false election claims, Havelock officials warn public about alligator near Walmart, Cape Carteret buys new utility vehicle to aid in picking up litter, New taxi, shuttle business seeks license to operate in Morehead City, Report: Navy ships face growing maintenance delays, costs, Fisheries division to survey for-hire watermen, National Enquirer, ensnared in catch-and-kill is sold. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. The actual crime itself required none of Hollywood's imagination. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Outside of the building, Ghantt met up with Campbell, Chambers, and others who were involved in the plot, and drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. He even had to watch what he bought at the grocery store. 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. He hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. He is a graduate of Yale and has worked for the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post. He angrily hung up the phone at Loomis, Fargo & Co., his soon-to-be former employer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. You can garnish wages. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. Afterward, everything became comical. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia Over 88% of the money has been recovered since the heist. The unsolved crime mystery of Marilyn Sheppard. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also. 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. 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. Thank you! The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. 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. 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. Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. 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. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Thirty years! How he and his wife had trouble communicating. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Things,Cool Interesting stuff has been online since early 2011. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. They could talk about anything, even topics he couldn't discuss with his wife. 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. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. Yet their lives seemed far easier and better than his. 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. Their most important conversation occurred one afternoon in August 1997 after Kelly paged him at work. Former Loomis employee David Scott Ghantt is accused of stealing the money. 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. 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, . By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing. "I was unhappy with my life. The building was configured so vans could drive inside and pull up next to the vault. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. 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. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. He stayed at it until the vault was empty. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. He knew his mother would be traumatized, shocked, and appalled. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. The gang made numerous mistakes. 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. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. '. 'When you have money, you just have different problems': The Loomis Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers (and his wifes) activities, but it was not until the FBIrecorded a phone callfrom Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. 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. After discussing his job, his marriage, and his everyday struggles, they joked about Loomis and about how easy it would be to steal from the place. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. Libraries without that edition should consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. More than 2 million dollars are still missing to this day. My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.99. Steve was a serious guy? But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. Have a youtube channel or website similar? 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. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde. And after two years, the case is just a file. A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or They also bought aBMW Z3with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 statue of aNative American. He realized his life wouldn't improve unless he did something drastic. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. 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) them. personal/abusive/condescending attacks on other users or goading If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. This was several years before the advent of smartphones and the post-9/11 increase in federal surveillance of electronic communications, and public knowledge about this tracking was less widespread. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. Though much of the cash was already stacked on pushcarts in the vault, other stacks were on shelves or the floor, and they were heavy. You can seize property. Growing up, David had been a nice kid, a decent student who was at worst a minor troublemaker and prankster. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. 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. 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. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Ghantt said he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. Its like, me and you sat down, I have access to pie, you like pie, all I want is my share of the pie. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. 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. 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. They Had 17 Million Dollars and No Sense at All - AMW Magazine Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and But after one visit, she asked a teller How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds? followed by Dont worry, it is notdrug money, the bank filled out asuspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Michelle Chambers received a few more months than Ghantt, because she had violated several bond conditions. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Low 46F. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. "its a great readsuspenseful, often funny, just the thing for those wondering what it might feel like to have, as these hapless, small-town criminals did, literally too darn much cash lying around. " That way, outsiders couldn't see money being loaded. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. I appreciate your kind words! October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery - Wikipedia He ejected the two VCR tapes that he knew had recorded him stealing the money, took them, and prepared to leave. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba Booklist "Librariesshould consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel." How Did A Model Employee Manage To Steal More Than $17 Million - Yahoo! So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. ", Johnson said, "Yeah, that's it. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. 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. People dont seem to understand human nature. But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The real 'Masterminds' Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. The property has changed hands several times since then. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. The van used to move the money was later located a few miles from the warehouse. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember why you were elected! The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. Not every agent has a case like that, he said. He tried again to make the back gate rise, to no avail. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. 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 theyve ever had. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. 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. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery - Strange Unexplained Mysteries The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. CHARLOTTE If you didnt live in the Charlotte area 25 years ago, you might not believe it. 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. Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. 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. How he felt shorted by life. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story Its said the current owner now has it in storage in Phoenix, Arizona. She had attitude. 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. "But you can still have a cigarette.". Its attracted workers like Ghantt. Loomis Fargo defendants owe as much as they stole in 1997 Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. In David's eyes, Johnson's big mistake was that he did it alone. "Just think about it," she said. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. She had attitude. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. After hanging up on her, David returned to work. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay.