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Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. David didn't even know Steve's name. So I guess I have no regrets. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. In real life: True. Hed be in contact. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. She also must . She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. 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. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. Still, she wasn't happy. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. I've got a good woman.". As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. 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. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. >> 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,. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. So I was glad it was over. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Posted on . About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. 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. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Michele received the best gift of the night. Kelly was no criminal. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. . "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. The figures can be astounding. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? I knew it was just a matter of time. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. 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. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. 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. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. 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. Thats one of my personality flaws. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. She will never get beyond the debt. 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. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. . . David trusted her. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. "You" has three. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. An officer rang the doorbell. I'd probably change jobs. That was great. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. "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. 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. Some of that money is just gone. 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. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. . He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. 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) The cash was covered with dog food. You might as well go all the way now.". Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Not Ghantt. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. The van door opened. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. She was a wife and mother with two children. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. 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. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. 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. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Kelly called David at. 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. 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. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. . On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. 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. 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. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Him and I still talk every now and then. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. 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. . 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. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. She laughed for like 45 minutes. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Steven Chambers [Misc. 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'm glad I've grown out of that.". She tried to apologize for the murder plot. 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. 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. 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. 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. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. . Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. . 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. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. 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. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. All were convicted. Health savings account and flexible spending account. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. His new life in Mexico had begun. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. That was the most painful truth to come to. But it wasnt. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. 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. 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) Was that really what it was about?