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In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. . Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. But in November, money ran low. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Heres your money. Then he turns around and leaves., The problem was, it was nowhere near the amount Ghantt had expected: Im looking at it, and theres maybe $8,000. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. In real life: Yes and no. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. I was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' His collection case closes in two years. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. 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 drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. No hard feelings. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. 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.. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. 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. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. Its kind of like that. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. It was his goodbye. 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. Where was Ghantt? Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. It was the first Saturday in October. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), Police: Officer Who Shot Black Man Retired 'In Bad Standing', 3 Kansas City Officers Who Were Shot Released From Hospital, 1 Killed When Business Jet Encounters Severe Turbulence. 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. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. 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. Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. . I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Because surprise! But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. I knew it was just a matter of time. I've got a good woman.". The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Then another. 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. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. "Think of how many women would have stood by. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. Theres less security. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. ". Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Sweat soaked David's uniform. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. Kelly's company. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. 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. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Not a documentary. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. They put up mauve wallpaper. 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. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. He learned to parachute. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. 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. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. And after two years, you're just a file." real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. In a word, "Teamwork. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. 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. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' He flew in an ultra-light plane. See all of the stories here. At 7:45, David had finished loading. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Hes well thought-out. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. Dental plans . 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. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. They stocked a wine cellar. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Michele received the best gift of the night. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. 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 . Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. October was "a blast," he said. . They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. I didnt pick the heist team. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. 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. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. She will never get beyond the debt. Ghantt:It's a comedy. 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. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. I was burned out and just didn't know it. 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. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. In real life: False. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Mine did. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Question: You were a consultant? Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. "Love" has four. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Ghantt went on to explain that he left for his flight to Mexico with about $25,000, and that two or three deliveries of extra money was made to him by the man Chambers would pay to kill him. Steve now needed a hit man. He went deep-sea fishing. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. Its hilarious. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. . The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. In real life: True. Careers. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Besides her prison sentence . Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. She laughed for like 45 minutes. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. 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. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. I wanted to get as far away as I could. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Thats one of my personality flaws. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? She declined to take a lie-detector test. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. 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. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. I didn't think I had the guts. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. Scary. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. kellis@gastongazette.com 0:04 0:57 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. And then I could hear her laughing. . Question: You went to Mexico. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Ghantt fled to Mexico. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. . So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. Military + Veterans. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. . Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? All rights reserved. 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.. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. Everybody seemed stunned. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? Then another. No regrets. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. 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. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. The figures can be astounding. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. 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. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. . Its in the ether. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. ". Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. The pager entry was 1-4-3. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Or that it was an inheritance. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. But what did that mean? Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. I mentioned it to Kelly. We got this guy named Bruno. All were convicted. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. I was just going to get the money into the van. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. David didn't even know Steve's name. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. 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. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. Our Benefits. 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. "For the first year, they're all over you. He goes, My name is Bruno. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? In real life: False. Hes very articulate. Not Ghantt. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. And so, he told her, Google my name. It was late in 1996. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him.