Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. . His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. . And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Was that really what it was about? The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Steven Chambers and David Ghantt (back) arrested 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath And so, he told her, Google my name. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? In the first heist, a regional vault supervisor loaded money into a branded truck and . There were times when I drank really heavily.". By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of "Saturday Night Live's" biggest current and former stars, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. "For the first year, they're all over you. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. There had been no signs. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. "But I had to know.". 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. 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. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. The gang made numerous mistakes. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. 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. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. ". You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. He had since served time in prison for the crime and told our sister station WSOC-TV Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Its hilarious. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." The picture, which is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey, stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis . Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. 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.. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. 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. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. It, too, has changed hands several times. Puedes cambiar tus opciones en cualquier momento desde tus controles de privacidad. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Informacin sobre tu dispositivo y conexin a Internet, como tu direccin IP, Actividad de navegacin y bsqueda al utilizar sitios web y aplicaciones de Yahoo. . The robbers went on a huge spending spree, buying a massive home, artworks, big-screen TVs, expensive cars, pickup trucks, minivans, two boats, six motorcycles and several tanning beds. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. Jared Hess directed Masterminds, and god bless the guy, but if Gentlemen Broncos and Nacho Libre were not proof enough that Napoleon Dynamite was a fluke, Masterminds should seal the deal. He learned to parachute. There it was, "The Heist." Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed. To its credit, Masterminds does nail down the broad strokes of the real story, although there were a couple of noteworthy details the film left out. They bought a BMW roadster. You can garnish wages. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. 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. David complained it wasn't enough. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. 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. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. Steve led the planning. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. 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. 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. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Kristen Wiig plays Kelly, who really wasn't that into David, but convinced him to take a fortune from Loomis Fargo in the fall of '97. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. Its about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the hillbillly heist the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. I didnt pick the heist team. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. I hear her typing. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. Thats one of my personality flaws. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. . His name was Corey. Baltimore leaders have agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers, Four family members from Australia who were injured during a crash-landing of a sightseeing helicopter in December are suing a Las Vegas-based tour operator, Massachusetts Gov. 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. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. But being the vault supervisor at Loomis Fargo had one perk -- exposure to tons of cash. 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. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. . October was "a blast," he said. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos, I Wore Magnetic Underwear for a Week to See If It Would Give Me a Boner of Steel. Username. Kelly was lying. and "I'm rich!". I was just going to get the money into the van. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. David thought about it. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. 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. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. At that same time, Steve was growing sick of the calls to send more money to Ghantt, and was looking for a way to end that issue. . Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Search Tools . 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. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. It was late in 1996. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. 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. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. 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. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east Charlotte, mom says. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what they'd talked about that day in the break room. 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. Its in the ether. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. Masterminds which opens nationwide today (though youd be hard pressed to know that given the decided lack of promotion) is proof again that all the talent in the world cannot salvage a bad script, and not even a good screenwriter can make up for terrible performances. Para obtener ms informacin sobre cmo utilizamos tus datos, consulta nuestra Poltica de privacidad y la Poltica de cookies. . ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. Of course the most famous thing inside the home was a velvet Elvis portrait. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. Circle from their home base as it turned out, ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit Mexico! Mckinney said of my money a matter of timing, more than half of green... 55-Gallon barrels of cash more than anything not paying off their debts time he me! 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