Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. . Steve tried keys on a side door. There was, however, one problem with his plan. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Theres no management around. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. You can garnish wages. Just head on out. And so, he did. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. and "I'm rich!". Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft by shes now Miss USA. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? 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 would call us friends. By . There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. Im a very deliberate person. 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. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. 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. . I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. 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. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. I loved it. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. She could visit friends. Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997 - History and Other Things I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. 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. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. 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. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. "Love" has four. Some of that money is just gone. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record And after two years, you're just a file." He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. 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. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. . The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. An officer rang the doorbell. 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. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. Contact Us | Loomis US He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. All I needed was a change of pace.". 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. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. 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. . They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. 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. 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. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. Not a documentary. More agents waited outside to arrest them. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. 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. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. 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. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. You can seize property. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? 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. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. "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. Still, she wasn't happy. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. 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. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. She was devastated, Diamant said. . Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). He flew in an ultra-light plane. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. Its hilarious. . Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. It was late in 1996. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Because surprise! Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The name she gave the pup is apropos. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Cool, I say. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. I hear her typing. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. He's a very likable person. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. 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. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. In real life: True. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. Hed be in contact. 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. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. 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. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. Eric watched. . Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. She will never get beyond the debt. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people.

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