Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. personal/abusive/condescending attacks on other users or goading Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Library Journal "highly entertaining." 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. That was taking the long view. And after two years, the case is just a file. David got a kick out of her. Enforcement of this policy is at the In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Heist! Twenty years ago this Wednesday, a small group of people stole $17 million in cash from the main vault of a Loomis Fargo & Co. armored-car warehouse in west Charlotte. "Everything's gonna be all right," she told him. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. Have a youtube channel or website similar? Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Driving away, he said he felt a mix of fear, confidence and excitement that he outsmarted the FBI. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. We are happy to work with other website publishers. 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.. After hanging up on her, David returned to work. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. 2023 Cox Media Group. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. Sure to be in demand as the book has been made into a movie, Masterminds, to be released in August.Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR. 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. "About fourteen or fifteen million dollars," he said. We went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, former FBI agent John Wydra said. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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 . For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. "I'm busy," he said. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. But after a year, they cut it down to two agents. At 2:20 p.m., the phone rang; it was Kelly again. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. He would then have the bulk of his share sent south of the border. David and Steve had never met, but Steve had already secured somebody else's birth certificate and social security card for him and given it to Kelly to pass along. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. Chambers had told Campbell to do whatever she needed to do to get Ghantt to commit the robbery. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. NASCAR. Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. Afterward, everything became comical. Steve was a serious guy? 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. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. - Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. "Just remind Steve," he said, "that I might be trouble my own self." The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when the heat was off, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. But after one visit, she asked a teller How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds? followed by Dont worry, it is notdrug money, the bank filled out asuspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. I think if you remember some of her early photographic opportunities, shall we put it that way, she was sort of laughing, not seeming to take it seriously.. Then one day, while reviewing his and Tammy's credit card bill, he did some quick math and realized that even if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take thirty years to pay. Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. I dont know if Steve would have done it himself, but he definitely was capable of buying someone to do it for him and I think that was going to happen if we didnt step in and arrest Ghantt, Wydra said. "its a great readsuspenseful, often funny, just the thing for those wondering what it might feel like to have, as these hapless, small-town criminals did, literally too darn much cash lying around. " The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. 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. (LogOut/ Javascript is not enabled in your browser. He angrily hung up the phone at Loomis, Fargo & Co., his soon-to-be former employer in Charlotte, North Carolina. It, too, has changed hands several times. About six months before the Charlotte theft, on March 29, a total of $18.8 million was taken from Loomis, Fargo in Jacksonville, Fla., in what was believed to be the largest heist in U.S.. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. 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. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. He also stole both existing sets of vault keys and hurried into the manager's office, where three TV security screens and two VCRs were visible. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. They had to be extremely careful not to tip off the group, as they could lose potential conspirators or more information important to a conviction. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. 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. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. 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. Action News Jax facebook feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax twitter feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax youtube feed(Opens a new window), JSO K9 escapes kennel, bites three people in Jacksonville neighborhood, To know Nancy was to love Nancy: St. Johns County woman killed in suspected DUI crash, JSO says missing child alert results in deadly drowning, Senator proposes bill giving state emergency jurisdiction over custody of kids with trans parents, Florida woman accused of killing terminally ill husband released from jail. Her case closes in 2025. What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. They also bought aBMW Z3with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 statue of aNative American. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. Most people are going to forgive you. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Asked the purpose of his visit, Johnson had replied, "To visit friends. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. David placed their odds of success at 85 percent, a confidence inspired by faith not just in his planning but also in his feelings for Kelly. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. : The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. The Star-Ledger, 06/15/2015On October 4, 1997, an amateurish gang robbed Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, NC of $17 million, the second largest heist in U.S. history. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. He was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. And once he started, he didn't stop with one cartful. The reason David didn't know Steve's last name was so they couldn't identify each other to the police or FBI, should cops or G-men ever enter the picture. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? David and Kelly had driven to Rock Hill, South Carolina, and used the documents to obtain a fake ID that David would also rely on after the theft. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Some of that money is just gone. In David's eyes, Johnson's big mistake was that he did it alone. You can seize property. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. The building was configured so vans could drive inside and pull up next to the vault. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? Ghantt said he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. 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Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. Growing up, David's family went to Disney World, sent him to religious school, and shopped at places he couldn't afford as a self-supporting adult. He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing cubes of cash and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth., White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money,, Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with., She will never get beyond the debt. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. David didn't appreciate her tone. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. 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. David was supposed to be showing him the ropes of the job, which included cash pickups and deliveries. At about 6:40 p.m., he went back inside. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. Was the temptation too much? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. 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.. He even had to watch what he bought at the grocery store. The police almost immediately called theFBI, since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. Spunk. He has been a staff writer for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey since 2000. "I don't have time to mess with you. In the first couple of weeks, they had heard both Steve and Shelley bragging about their new-found fortune, and spending remarkable amounts of money. 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) Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Ghantt was working as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte in 1997, earning about $8 an hour and tired of his humdrum life. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. 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. Steve had hired a bodyguard named Mike McKinney. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Spunk. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. The property has changed hands several times since then. "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. 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. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la There's just one hitch: Ghantt has entrusted the money to an oddball crew of accomplices who had wooed him into committing this massive theft in the first placeand who, he soon learns, are trying to take him out.