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. If it didn't work out, he could return to the United States later with a new identity. 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. Perry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; and Eric Haley Payne.. 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. David was supposed to be showing him the ropes of the job, which included cash pickups and deliveries. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. - 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. 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. 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. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. After discussing his job, his marriage, and his everyday struggles, they joked about Loomis and about how easy it would be to steal from the place. Expanded two-hour true crime story about the 1997 Loomis-Fargo armored car heist in North Carolina and the serio-comic fate of its bumbling underdog perpetra. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. In the grand scheme of things, the prison sentence for stealing $20 million wouldn't be much worse than for stealing just $500,000 maybe a few extra years behind bars. Johnson had stolen $18.8 million earlier in the year, on March 19, 1997, only to be caught five months later, in late August, while crossing into Texas from Mexico to retrieve some of the money, which he'd hidden in a shed in mountainous western North Carolina. David got a kick out of her. "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. 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. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. These cookies do not store any personal information. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Instead he became paranoid, especially after Steve Chambers put a contract out on his life. It's still the hot topic . He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. "Don't back out on us. When did you conclude Yeah, Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Chambers had told Campbell to do whatever she needed to do to get Ghantt to commit the robbery. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. In the end, the FBI was able to capture the original gang in five months, snaring 21 individuals for their participation in the crime. So the original gang was all totally shocked, Wydra said. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. 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. It wasn't how much you stole that mattered most; it was that you had stolen in the first place. 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. One number is working in Campbells favor. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. The plan was to exit through the building's electronic back gate, which consisted of horizontal metal plates that opened at the touch of a button. At 2:20 p.m., the phone rang; it was Kelly again. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. NASCAR. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. 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. Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. All but one of the defendants pleaded guilty. But he wasn't finished. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! 2023 Cox Media Group. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. 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 had approached her inside the chain-link fence that surrounded the building and said with a flirty smile, "If you give me a cigarette, I'll be your friend. "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. This technically made it abank robbery afederal offense. It was the second-largest. 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. You have permission to edit this article. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la Winds light and variable. The movie was called Masterminds and stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. She will never get beyond the debt. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Inside the truck, they found Ghantts ring and surmised this as a sign of Ghantts intention to end his relationship with his wife. Who was she to be pressuring him? I gotta go.". Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. Some of that money is just gone. The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. 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. The property has changed hands several times since then. 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. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. 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. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Of course, this would all be a radical departure for him, and thoughts of his wife and parents did give him pause. You can garnish wages. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Four-wheeling. He tried again to make the back gate rise, to no avail. 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. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. 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. 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. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. Though much of the cash was already stacked on pushcarts in the vault, other stacks were on shelves or the floor, and they were heavy. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! Ghantt had struck up a relationship with a fellow Loomis Fargo employee, Kelly Campbell; they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. 2023 Cox Media Group. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. Ghantt studied how to rob his employer and advised the others not to spend the money lavishly. 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. In the movie: Campbell invites Ghantt to a restaurant under the auspices of a date, but then springs the idea of the heist on him, as Chambers and two associates join the conversation from an . You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. But after a year, they cut it down to two agents. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all., WSOC TV facebook feed(Opens a new window), Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago, ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east Charlotte, mom says, ALSO READ: Leader of $3M check theft, bank fraud scheme in Charlotte area sentenced to prison, ALSO READ: Man released from jail, accused of robbing banks while wearing electronic monitor, police say, ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says, NCSHP arrest driver accused of nearly hitting 2 students at bus stop in Statesville, CMS delays opening of new school meant to ease overcrowding, Mooresville orders removal of memorial at park after teens death, Chick-fil-A announces app data breach, tells customers how to protect personal information, Charlotte woman celebrates $1 million scratch-off prize, WSOC - TV Public File Contact / Program Director, WAXN - TV Public File Contact / Program Director. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. More calls between the two men, and also between Steve and Kelly Campbell, made it clear that the group was starting to turn on David Ghantt. 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. Some of that money is just gone. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Before the robber left Loomis Fargo, he made a trip to the managers office to remove two surveillance tapes in order to conceal his identity. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. And after two years, the case is just a file. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. Its in the ether. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. In David's eyes, Johnson's big mistake was that he did it alone. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. Her case closes in 2025. Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. Later, they also arrested Nathans older brother. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. There was a book published in 2002 as well, by author Jeff Diamant called,Heist! A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. How he and his wife had trouble communicating. Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. 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. The FBI was inadvertently aided by the gang members extravagant spending. The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. The plan was still on, but David remained steamed. 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. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde. 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. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. Kristen Wiig plays Kelly, who really wasn't that into David, but convinced him to take a fortune from Loomis Fargo in the fall of '97. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for it. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You can seize property. I appreciate your kind words! They succeeded in removing $17 million from the safe. 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. But things didnt quite work out that way. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Afterward, everything became comical. "I'm busy," he said. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. You can seize property. The Loomis Fargo Heist Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. The October 4 shift was lasting longer than expected, due to delays involving pickups and deliveries. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. 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. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. And Kelly thought he was funny. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. "I don't have time to mess with you. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. The robbery was committed by David Scott Ghantt who was the vault supervisor and accomplices Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers, Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobies, and other four members. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. Seven p.m. came and went, and so did 7:20. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. The phone calls began to get more intense when Steve and Eric got suspicious of a man who was running hismouth about them and the vault job over in Charlotte. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. 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. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. "What would it take to make you do it?". Now one of the most wanted men in America with the FBI hot on his heels, Ghantt must figure out how to get his money, get away from a hit man, and get even. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. He had since served time in prison for the crime and told our sister station WSOC-TV Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Loomis Fargo, the nation's largest privately held armored- car company, used vans to transport hundreds of millions of dollars a day belonging to banks and other businesses, stocking automated teller machines and storing money in the Loomis vault between deliveries. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" 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. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. A couple by the names of Steve and Shelley Chambers also became people of interest in the investigation due to their extreme sudden increase in spending. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: - Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. The Chambers home is now gated, which means Channel 9 crews cant drive up to it like we used to. But if you did, youll never forget it. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. 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) Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. 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. He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. "About fourteen or fifteen million dollars," he said. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember why you were elected! Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. 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