The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. In real life: Yes and no. In real life: True. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. 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. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). He flew in an ultra-light plane. There were times when I drank really heavily.". His new life in Mexico had begun. Question: You went to Mexico. 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. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. David trusted her. Her case closes in 2025. 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. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. There was, however, one problem with his plan. She could spend time with her children and parents. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. David thought about it. 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,. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Its everything thats coming north.. 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. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. 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. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. So I was glad it was over. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - legal-innovation.com Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. 6-Year Sentence For Kelly Campbell | The Seattle Times Hed be in contact. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Was Queen Charlotte Black? A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. 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) Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Industry leading Training and Development. Posted on . They stocked a wine cellar. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. He gave the rest to Kelly. 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. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997 Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. 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. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. Its hilarious. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. 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. . Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. 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. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. The real story behind the second largest bank heist in history, which I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. "But I had to know.". Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. 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. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. "I missed my family. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Everybody seemed stunned. Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997 - History and Other Things . How Did David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers Steal More Than Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. He couldn't talk.". CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com ", "I wouldn't do it. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. ". "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' 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. In real life: False. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? Kelly Campbell - Wikipedia I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. 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. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? I've got a good woman.". The audacity of the act was breathtaking. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. You've violated that trust. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. 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. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. 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 started to go south the night of the robbery. The case resurfaced in the federal courts on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte posted a public reminder in the case file of Loomis defendant Kelly Campbell that she had fallen behind in her restitution. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. 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. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Things were spiraling fast. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar Question: Should people go see this movie? There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. Dependent care account. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' . 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. Eric watched. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. She also must . They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. She could visit friends. and "I love money!" He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. At 7:45, David had finished loading. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. All rights reserved. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. 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. 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.. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Then another. 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. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. "I was unhappy with my life. It changes you. 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. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. 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. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. In real life: False. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. . She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. 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. 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. Mine did. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. He learned to parachute. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. 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. Not a documentary. 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). Why fans love it. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. 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. By . It affects everybody different. No dry runs, no rehearsals. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Cool, I say. I was just going to get the money into the van. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. 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. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia 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. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Contact Us | Loomis US Him and I still talk every now and then. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. 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. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. 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. 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. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. 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. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. I hear her typing. 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. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. . I don't blame him.". Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. And after two years, you're just a file." This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba . When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Now two NC men face prison. The van door opened. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years.