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. 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. I wanted to get as far away as I could. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Mine did. Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com But in November, money ran low. 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. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. 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. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. October was "a blast," he said. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. 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. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. . Im a very deliberate person. Things were spiraling fast. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. 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. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? 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. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. I loved it. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Thats one of my personality flaws. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. Its everything thats coming north.. . So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? 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. We got this guy named Bruno. It was the first Saturday in October. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. 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. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. It was late in 1996. Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. Kelly called David at. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. I can take it.". And robbing a truck was dangerous. ". He couldn't talk.". He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. 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. 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. The cash was covered with dog food. Sweat soaked David's uniform. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. . When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. They paid for all of it in cash. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Military + Veterans. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. 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. shes now Miss USA. That was the most painful truth to come to. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. 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.. Kelly was no criminal. ". He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. 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. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. He gave the rest to Kelly. The money was heavy. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. 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. 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. Its kind of like that. Besides her prison sentence . "I" has one letter. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. She will never get beyond the debt. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. Then another. 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. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997 Were others involved? That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. . 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. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. And youre like, Come on parachute. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. I've got a good woman.". He's a very likable person. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . 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. 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. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. 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. You can seize property. The figures can be astounding. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Once in a lifetime, Murdaugh verdict sends a Lowcountry message: No one is above the law | Opinion, Charlotte Waffle House found with live roach, unclean equipment during health inspection. There had been no signs. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. 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. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. They sweated, though the night was cool. 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. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. 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. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. 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) Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? ". Scary. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. In real life: False. 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.. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Hed be in contact. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' 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. . Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Question: Should people go see this movie? By . But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. 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. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. An officer rang the doorbell. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. 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. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. Steve tried keys on a side door. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. Industry leading Training and Development. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. . Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. "But I had to know.". Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. 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. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. The real 'Masterminds' Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. Did you get paid? They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Its hilarious. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. 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. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. 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). The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. The name she gave the pup is apropos. Michele received the best gift of the night. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." 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. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Him and I still talk every now and then. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. He kept looking over his shoulder. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. No regrets. 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. Yes, happy. So I guess I have no regrets. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. 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. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. I don't blame him.". More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. Just head on out. And so, he did. . He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? 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. 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. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Exciting. He didnt even really question me. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. Looking for Kelly Loomis? Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. He didn't want to abandon his parents. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. 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. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. But what did that mean? Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. 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. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. 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. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. 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. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. In real life: False. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. You're an idiot.'". 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."