About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. The van door opened. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. He didnt even really question me. In a word, "Teamwork. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. 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. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. 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. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. He goes, My name is Bruno. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. 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. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. Kelly called David at. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. 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. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. 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. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. You might as well go all the way now.". Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. 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. 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. It affects everybody different. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. More agents waited outside to arrest them. 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 didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. "I missed my family. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Question: You were a consultant? 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. Did you get paid? ", "I wouldn't do it. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. 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. Her case closes in 2025. . 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. Question: Should people go see this movie? Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Looking for Kelly Loomis? If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. . Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. I loved it. Industry leading Training and Development. 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. No hard feelings. They cursed. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. 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. In real life: Mostly true. I studied up on the FBI. Im a very deliberate person. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Then another. 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. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. 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. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. 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. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. He gave the rest to Kelly. 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. Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. All were convicted. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Not a documentary. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Ghantt fled to Mexico. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. 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. Then another. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. ". She could spend time with her children and parents. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. October was "a blast," he said. 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. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. 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. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. 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. Now two NC men face prison. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. "He was in tears. In real life: True. 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. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. 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. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. Its kind of like that. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. Some of the biggest numbers remaining on the Loomis collection board, as is the case with Campbell, belong to those who played the biggest role in the crime: David Ghantt, the Loomis employee who loaded all that money 2,800 pounds in all into the back of a company van before escaping to Mexico, has paid just under $50,000 of the $3.81 million he was assessed. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. 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. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. "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. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. 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. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. . But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. 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. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. Why fans love it. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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. Scary. 27 febrero, 2023 . They bought a BMW roadster. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Steve led the planning. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. And I was thinking about just showing up there. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' 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. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. No dry runs, no rehearsals. David didn't even know Steve's name. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Were others involved? Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. . Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Posted on . So I was glad it was over. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. David trusted her. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. 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. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. Its everything thats coming north.. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. But it wasnt. "You" has three. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. Dependent care account. In real life: Yes and no. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. One number is working in Campbells favor. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. 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. . Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. 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. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. . By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. 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. Steve tried keys on a side door. He's a very likable person. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. It was late in 1996. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. She will never get beyond the debt. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. Kelly drove David to the airport. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. Cool, I say. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. 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,. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. 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. The figures can be astounding. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. 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. He didn't want to abandon his parents. See all of the stories here. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' Exciting. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. And going to see the Mayan ruins. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Eric watched. Hes very articulate. . "I" has one letter. Careers. . "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. I wanted to get as far away as I could. She could visit friends. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. 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. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Theres no management around. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. shes now Miss USA. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. That was great. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. Thats one of my personality flaws. This time, David told McKinney the truth. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). 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 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. Health savings account and flexible spending account. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. "It probably should bother me," he said. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. . Things started to go south the night of the robbery. 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. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Besides her prison sentence . So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. . Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. And robbing a truck was dangerous. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. 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. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. . 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. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] 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. Or that it was an inheritance. 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.