White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. They put up mauve wallpaper. We got this guy named Bruno. . And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. David complained it wasn't enough. See all of the stories here. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. 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. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. 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.. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Theres no management around. 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. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. Industry leading Training and Development. 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 biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. And going to see the Mayan ruins. 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. and "I love money!" Visit us at Loomis.us. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Still, she wasn't happy. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. 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. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Cool, I say. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. 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. You're an idiot.'". No hard feelings. . They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. 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. What made her do it? Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. 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. 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 sweated, though the night was cool. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? Did you get paid? But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. "He was in tears. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. She laughed for like 45 minutes. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. All rights reserved. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. 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. 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. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. In a word, "Teamwork. So I guess I have no regrets. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Exciting. She also must . That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. Kelly's company. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Some of that money is just gone. He flew in an ultra-light plane. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. 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. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. ". From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Ghantt:It's a comedy. . (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. I missed my wife. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. ". That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. 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. Then another. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. Its hilarious. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. No regrets. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. 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. 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. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. "I was unhappy with my life. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. 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) He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Looking for Kelly Loomis? The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. And then I could hear her laughing. Its everything thats coming north.. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. The van door opened. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. 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. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. In real life: False. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. 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. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. I was just going to get the money into the van. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. 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. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. 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. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. 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. 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 Mountain. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. "It probably should bother me," he said. 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. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. Hed be in contact. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. 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. 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. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. There were times when I drank really heavily.". I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. An officer rang the doorbell. She could spend time with her children and parents. 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. 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Dependent care account. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. He's a very likable person. He couldn't talk.". He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. 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. 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. You've violated that trust. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. You can seize property. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Were others involved? It was the first Saturday in October. 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. I was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. One number is working in Campbells favor. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. David didn't even know Steve's name. 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. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. . . As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. 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. "I work construction. Our Benefits. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. 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. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. 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. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. "I thought he was goofing around.". Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4.
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