Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. . Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . I mentioned it to Kelly. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. 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. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. 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. 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. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. About 200 keys dangled from it. 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. 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. 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. In real life: True. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. This is the person I counted as my friend. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. 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. To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. Its in the ether. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), Police: Officer Who Shot Black Man Retired 'In Bad Standing', 3 Kansas City Officers Who Were Shot Released From Hospital, 1 Killed When Business Jet Encounters Severe Turbulence. I hear her typing. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. 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. And so, he told her, Google my name. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. An officer rang the doorbell. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Was that really what it was about? Kelly was lying. 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. Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. Kelly called David at. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. Still, she wasn't happy. "You" has three. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Then another. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. 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. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. 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. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. In real life: Mostly true. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. . Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. The money was heavy. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. "I thought he was goofing around.". 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. But it wasnt. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. All were convicted. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. 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. I don't blame him.". I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. And then I could hear her laughing. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. . If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Steve tried keys on a side door. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. 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. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. "I was unhappy with my life. I knew it was just a matter of time. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. . Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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.. And robbing a truck was dangerous. Kelly drove David to the airport. "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. ". In real life: True. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. 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. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. So I guess I have no regrets. David trusted her. 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. 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. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. 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. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. But in November, money ran low. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. In real life: False. 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. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. It was his goodbye. 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. She could visit friends. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. More agents waited outside to arrest them. October was "a blast," he said. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. It affects everybody different. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. 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. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. 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. 27 febrero, 2023 . All rights reserved. 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. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. 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. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. 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. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Im a very deliberate person. Then another. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. 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. . If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. 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. 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. By . He flew in an ultra-light plane. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. shes now Miss USA. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. and "I'm rich!". 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. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. I'd probably change jobs. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Where was Ghantt? And youre like, Come on parachute. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Its hilarious. 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. Hes well thought-out. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. There were times when I drank really heavily.". 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. 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. You're an idiot.'". "Love" has four. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. 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. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. 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. 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. Theres less security. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. 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. 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. And going to see the Mayan ruins. 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. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. Its everything thats coming north.. Kelly was no criminal. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. She also must . 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. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. In real life: False. 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. It changes you. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. 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. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. . Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. It was the first Saturday in October. 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. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. 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. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. Things were spiraling fast. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. At 7:45, David had finished loading. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. 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.. Hes very articulate. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. 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)
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