It was late in 1996. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . David didn't even know Steve's name. He didn't want to abandon his parents. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. I mentioned it to Kelly. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. So I guess I have no regrets. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. In real life: False. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. More agents waited outside to arrest them. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Or that it was an inheritance. Question: You were a consultant? Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. In real life: False. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. 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.. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. 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. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Visit us at Loomis.us. . No dry runs, no rehearsals. . 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. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Cool, I say. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. He gave the rest to Kelly. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. . It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. 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:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. 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. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. 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. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. Its in the ether. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. Its kind of like that. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. 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 . That was great. I would call us friends. 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. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. I was just going to get the money into the van. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. And robbing a truck was dangerous. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Scary. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Still, she wasn't happy. She will never get beyond the debt. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. ". So he got in a cab and went to a mall. In a word, "Teamwork. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. She declined to take a lie-detector test. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. 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. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. . On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. . At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Sweat soaked David's uniform. 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. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. 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,. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. . David trusted her. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. 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. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. 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. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. 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. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. They decorated their 6,000-square-foot stucco house with antiques, paintings and statues, including a six-foot wooden Indian that Michele had bought for $600. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Then another. Ghantt went on to explain that he rarely even looks at his debt statement to the government, but believes the IRS says he still owes them $3.8 million. 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. 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. Thats one of my personality flaws. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. Its really just a matter of timing, more than anything. And she says, How much do you think wed get out of there? I said, Ten to 15 million. But I didnt really know.. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. 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. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. . . 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. Kelly drove David to the airport. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. About 200 keys dangled from it. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. He went deep-sea fishing. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. 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. David complained it wasn't enough. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. 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. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. His name was Corey. ". He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. ". It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Eric watched. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". In real life: False. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. "He was in tears. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. 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. 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. Industry leading Training and Development. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' David quickly realized he was the intended victim. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. 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. Yes, happy. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. . So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). In real life: Yes and no. 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. . You might as well go all the way now.". Kelly relayed his message to Steve. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. That was the most painful truth to come to. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Im a very deliberate person. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Military + Veterans. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. Once in a lifetime, Murdaugh verdict sends a Lowcountry message: No one is above the law | Opinion, Charlotte Waffle House found with live roach, unclean equipment during health inspection. Theres less security. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. 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. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? . Question: You went to Mexico. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. 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 only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. But it wasnt. 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. . "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. This is the person I counted as my friend. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly said. Ghantt fled to Mexico. Ghantt spent a solid hour moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an unmarked company van. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. You've violated that trust. They put up mauve wallpaper. All were convicted. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money.