He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. Hed be in contact. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. 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. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. She will never get beyond the debt. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. 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. 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. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Theres no management around. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. He kept looking over his shoulder. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. 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. I was burned out and just didn't know it. . 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. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. . 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. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. . Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. 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. 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. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? 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. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. 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. 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. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. 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. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. 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. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. By . In real life: True. Then another. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Some of that money is just gone. I wanted to get as far away as I could. . Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. One of them tapped him on the back. David thought about it. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. "For the first year, they're all over you. Kelly called David at. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. Just head on out. And so, he did. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. 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. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. She declined to take a lie-detector test. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Why do we feel its so necessary to treat people like this, to say, OK, well just ruin the rest of your life because you made a bad decision., Punishment should not last a lifetime. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. The figures can be astounding. Mine did. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. I didnt pick the heist team. "But I had to know.". 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. Then another. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. 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. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. She could spend time with her children and parents. Not Ghantt. 27 febrero, 2023 . They paid for all of it in cash. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. There it was, "The Heist." Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. In real life: True. She was a wife and mother with two children. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. 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. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. That was great. ". And robbing a truck was dangerous. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. On Oct. 7, 1997, two FBI agents arrived at Kelly Campbell's home after two Loomis employees had told agents she and David had once dated. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. 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. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. ", "I wouldn't do it. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. 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. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. . 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 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. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. ". I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. They sweated, though the night was cool. In real life: False. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. David trusted her. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. He goes, My name is Bruno. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. . Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. The Columbia airport had no available flights. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. ". Im a very deliberate person. I don't blame him.". "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. . 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. Campbell and her husband had always been just scraping by, however in the weeks following the robbery, the two seemed to have more money than they've ever had. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. Question: You went to Mexico. 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. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. ". Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. 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. The cash was covered with dog food. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. 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. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. 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 and happy. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. It was the first Saturday in October. Posted on . Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. Hes very articulate. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. Eric watched. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. 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. Ghantt:It's a comedy. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Kelly was no criminal. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. I can take it.". Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. . 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 . Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Was Queen Charlotte Black? 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. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. and "I'm rich!". Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. Or that it was an inheritance. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. All I needed was a change of pace.". Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. . She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Yes, happy. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. Question: You were a consultant? I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. 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. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. . It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. You might as well go all the way now.". You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. 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. But the idea of all that money pulled at 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. 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 was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. Kelly's company. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. Cool, I say. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. And after two years, you're just a file." First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. Steven Chambers [Misc. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? 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. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. 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.. . 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. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. In real life: False. . When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. 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. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. She just called me up on the phone and said, Hey, lets meet one day after work. And then, we were talking and she says, How do you feel about robbing Loomis Fargo? Ghantt tells me. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck."

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