Uncategorized > real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. Web>> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. 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. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Ghantt was caught on videotape loading large amounts of cash into a truck. More than 95% of the cash that stolen was accounted for. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell and other members of the ring were arrested. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. kellis@gastongazette.com View Comments 0:03 1:14 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. While she made small deposits at first, she became more reckless, eventually making a deposit of thousands of dollars in cash, telling the teller not to worry: Its not drug money.. And Ghantt hadnt really thought about the physical challenge of moving such a large sum of money. His partners, who planned to stay behind, agreed to send him his full cut of the money after the heat from investigators had died down. Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. "Wells Fargo and Loomis forming armored car company", Learn how and when to remove this template message, painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet, "FindACase | United States of America v. Steven Eugene Chambers", "The Unperfect Crime | New Dominion Pictures", "Sunday Evening/Late Night September 9, 2001", "Loomis Fargo heist: Q&A with guy who stole $17 million", "MASTERMINDS - Movie Production NotesCinemaReview.com", Ghantt and other gang members arrested in March 1998, Steven Chambers released from prison; announces he is a "retired criminal", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery&oldid=1132065054, Articles with dead external links from February 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Overcoming the mindset that led to the part David Ghantt played in the Loomis robbery and how he started on a new path was the subject of the book, Within days of the robbery, the case was depicted on the television criminal reporting show, An expanded two-hour special episode of the crime documentary series. He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. Heist: The Oddball Crew behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Jeff Diamant 12 Audio CD 9 offers from $5.86 About the Author Jeff Diamant covered the heist for the Charlotte Observer. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. 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. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. See all of the stories here. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. 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. Then Michele made a trip to the bank. 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. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. Hes very articulate. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! WebThis real-life . 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.. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Having only brought $50,000 in cash, however, Ghantt soon found himself short on funds. WebTwo days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. Hello, federal suspicious activity report. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the robbery and then quickly leave the country for Mexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Without question, 1997's Loomis Fargo robbery has a home in it. Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Thats one of my personality flaws. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. 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. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the s A Comprehensive Guide. We got this guy named Bruno. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. Before he left, he went into his managers office and removed tapes from two of the security cameras. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. WebWord trickled in to the FBI that Ghantt had a romantic interest in a former coworker, Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. 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. From there, hed meet Campbell, Chambers and Grant, a friend of Chambers, in a parking lot, from where they would head to an industrial warehouse and load all but $50,000 into a rental van. His new life in Mexico had begun. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. In addition to his phone calls with Ghantt, Chambers began extravagantly spending the money, even though the co-conspirators had agreed to lay low for a year or two. This is the person I counted as my friend. Ron DeSantis has awarded $100 million for beach erosion projects and other restoration efforts in 16 coastal counties damaged by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, A Tennessee judge has ruled that video detailing the treatment of a death row inmate who cut off his penis while on suicide watch must be made public, An Indiana man faces felony charges after his diaper-clad 4-year-old son was seen pointing a loaded handgun at people outside their apartment. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. 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.. 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. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. 7 Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. See real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist.. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt during! And youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico wasnt Ghantts idea, which he! Content, free digital evidence kits, and youll be able to ship it to me, if it them! 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real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist

I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. Ghantt and Campbell couldnt get to Mexico from Columbia, as there were no international flights being offered out of the hub, which they would have known, had they called ahead. I hear her typing. 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.. 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. They paid for all of it in cash. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. Dozens of FBI agents everywhere. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, The So-Called Female Delusion Calculator Doesnt Add Up, I Wore Magnetic Underwear for a Week to See If It Would Give Me a Boner of Steel, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. 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 morning after the height, employees of Loomis Fargo realized they couldnt open the vault. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Hes well thought-out. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such as scuba diving and parasailing. If I could get far enough away in a very short amount of time, my odds of getting away with it were pretty high, Ghantt said. 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. 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. Two days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. There are two ideas as to how the plan was created. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Four more people were also charged with laundering, bringing the grand total to more than twenty. It was the first Saturday in October. Ghantt was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. As he later recalled about his life before the 1997 heist that changed his life forever: Prior to, I would have never even considered it but one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Not Ghantt. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. David Ghantt was the vault supervisor for Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored cars, which managed the transportation of large sums of cash between banks in North Carolina. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. The other, suggested bythen-Observer reporter Jeff Diamant, says that Campbell created the plan with Steve Chambers,a drug dealer who was facing charges for writing $30,000 worth of bad checks, and later got Ghantt involved. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. They lived lavishly: Mastermind Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) moved from a mobile home to a large home in a gated community, paid for in cash alerting authorities. A comedy film called Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist and starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis, was released in 2016. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. When Ghantt called Chambers to have the latter wire him more money, Chambers sent just a few thousand dollars. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Its hilarious. Before he decided to steal $17 million from the bank, Ghantt had worked for years as a relatively taciturn and compliant employee. Something was going on in Cramerton, the multiple callers said. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Ghantt sent home a new employee and quickly loaded the money into the back of a bank van. Ghantt didnt actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it. 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. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $30.5 million in 2020). Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. After meeting up with Chambers, Campbell, and some other co-conspirators, Ghantt hightailed it to Mexico with $50,000 in cash in his car. He completed his prison sentence in November 2006. Join the 119,947 smart Charlotteans that receive our daily newsletter. Authorities said they hired a man named Michael McKinney to meet up with Ghantt and kill him, under the guise that he was planning to give Ghantt more of the money he was owed. 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. He also took various measures to change his appearance, such as shaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he "looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million. Ill never pay it off on my paycheck, Ghantt said. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), DeSantis Awards $100M for Hurricane Erosion Recovery Efforts, Judge Orders Release of Video of Inmate Who Mutilated Self, Indiana Man Charged After Son in Diaper Points Gun at People, California Do Not Sell My Personal Information Request. 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. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? Together with his wife, Chambers bought a new luxury home (upgrading from his mobile home), a BMW Z3, and some extravagant furnishings. According to an Observer report, this was seven times larger than their trailer. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. Wyatt Redd is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. I didnt pick the heist team. What are the principles on which our Constitution is based? They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. He and his wife, Michelle, moved from their mobile home in Lincoln County to a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section of Cramerton. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. 9 Where did the masterminds live after the heist? All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. [15], "David Ghantt" redirects here. Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. The film was produced by Brent Almond. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. 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. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! Dont worry, its not drug money.. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, Steven Chambers and Kelly Jane Campbell, also are charged with plotting to kill Ghantt. I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. The conversations werent made up of much more than daydreams that took the vague shape of plansuntilCampbell mentioned that she had a high school friend with connections that could actually get it done. Some of that money is just gone. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. One number is working in Campbells favor. WebAydin Properties > Uncategorized > real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. Web>> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. 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. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Ghantt was caught on videotape loading large amounts of cash into a truck. More than 95% of the cash that stolen was accounted for. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell and other members of the ring were arrested. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. kellis@gastongazette.com View Comments 0:03 1:14 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. While she made small deposits at first, she became more reckless, eventually making a deposit of thousands of dollars in cash, telling the teller not to worry: Its not drug money.. And Ghantt hadnt really thought about the physical challenge of moving such a large sum of money. His partners, who planned to stay behind, agreed to send him his full cut of the money after the heat from investigators had died down. Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. "Wells Fargo and Loomis forming armored car company", Learn how and when to remove this template message, painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet, "FindACase | United States of America v. Steven Eugene Chambers", "The Unperfect Crime | New Dominion Pictures", "Sunday Evening/Late Night September 9, 2001", "Loomis Fargo heist: Q&A with guy who stole $17 million", "MASTERMINDS - Movie Production NotesCinemaReview.com", Ghantt and other gang members arrested in March 1998, Steven Chambers released from prison; announces he is a "retired criminal", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery&oldid=1132065054, Articles with dead external links from February 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Overcoming the mindset that led to the part David Ghantt played in the Loomis robbery and how he started on a new path was the subject of the book, Within days of the robbery, the case was depicted on the television criminal reporting show, An expanded two-hour special episode of the crime documentary series. He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. Heist: The Oddball Crew behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Jeff Diamant 12 Audio CD 9 offers from $5.86 About the Author Jeff Diamant covered the heist for the Charlotte Observer. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. 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. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. See all of the stories here. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. 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. Then Michele made a trip to the bank. 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. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. Hes very articulate. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! WebThis real-life . 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.. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Having only brought $50,000 in cash, however, Ghantt soon found himself short on funds. WebTwo days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. Hello, federal suspicious activity report. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the robbery and then quickly leave the country for Mexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Without question, 1997's Loomis Fargo robbery has a home in it. Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Thats one of my personality flaws. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. 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. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the s A Comprehensive Guide. We got this guy named Bruno. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. Before he left, he went into his managers office and removed tapes from two of the security cameras. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. WebWord trickled in to the FBI that Ghantt had a romantic interest in a former coworker, Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. 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. From there, hed meet Campbell, Chambers and Grant, a friend of Chambers, in a parking lot, from where they would head to an industrial warehouse and load all but $50,000 into a rental van. His new life in Mexico had begun. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. In addition to his phone calls with Ghantt, Chambers began extravagantly spending the money, even though the co-conspirators had agreed to lay low for a year or two. This is the person I counted as my friend. Ron DeSantis has awarded $100 million for beach erosion projects and other restoration efforts in 16 coastal counties damaged by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, A Tennessee judge has ruled that video detailing the treatment of a death row inmate who cut off his penis while on suicide watch must be made public, An Indiana man faces felony charges after his diaper-clad 4-year-old son was seen pointing a loaded handgun at people outside their apartment. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. 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.. 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. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. 7 Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. See real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist.. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt during! And youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico wasnt Ghantts idea, which he! Content, free digital evidence kits, and youll be able to ship it to me, if it them! 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