"Think of how many women would have stood by. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. He didn't want to abandon his parents. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. 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. ". To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. No hard feelings. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. 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. and "I'm rich!". 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. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. 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. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. 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. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. But as he later recalled to the media, as soon as he stepped through those big-box doors, he realized he was flush with cash, and he didnt need to shop at Walmart ever again. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4,. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. 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. But it wasnt. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. In real life: Mostly true. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. 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. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. They bought a BMW roadster. In real life: False. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. 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. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. Its in the ether. 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. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Cool, I say. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. . You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. "For the first year, they're all over you. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. 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. 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. 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. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. 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. You're an idiot.'". (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. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. "Love" has four. Her case closes in 2025. 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. I can take it.". Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. 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. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. She also must . . ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer. and "I love money!" Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. 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. 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. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. What made her do it? . And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. I missed my wife. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. There were times when I drank really heavily.". They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. David thought about it. Ghantt:It's a comedy. They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. And I was thinking about just showing up there. One number is working in Campbells favor. He went deep-sea fishing. 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. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" In real life: False. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Posted on . 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. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. . Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. ". She will never get beyond the debt. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. I didn't think I had the guts. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for 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 fans love it. 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. 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." "I" has one letter. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. "But I had to know.". Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. Steve led the planning. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. 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. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. I studied up on the FBI. 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. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". Kelly relayed his message to Steve. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. Ghantt fled to Mexico. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Its hilarious. All I needed was a change of pace.". Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. 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.
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