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. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. The FBI investigation was aided by the gang's extravagant spending. On October 6, they found the van with everything that Chambers had left behind, including Ghanttsgun and a clear picture of his face on video, which was identified by supervisors. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. 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 knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the groups demise. And going to see the Mayan ruins. For the New York State assemblyman, see. [7][8], Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants. David Ghantt was a technical consultant for the film, but due to outstanding court-ordered restitution for his part in the heist he was not paid. There are two ideas as to how the plan was created. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Or that it was an inheritance. 9 Where did the masterminds live after the heist? From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Items included a velvet Elvis painting, 1998 BMW, 17-foot motorboat and Harley Davidson. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. And I was thinking about just showing up there. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. WebThe 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 Some of that money is just gone. WebPerry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; There used to be a consulate in Cancun. kellis@gastongazette.com View Comments 0:03 1:14 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. You know Loomis because of their armored cash vehicles, and when they acquired Wells Fargo Armored, turned into Loomis, Fargo & Co. Ghantt, who had been with the bank since 1994, was promoted from driver to vault supervisor in 1997, where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt mixed up in the plans for the heist after she left Loomis. Then Michele made a trip to the bank. 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. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Two days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Its in the ether. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. For a time, it was nicknamed "the hillbilly heist" because nearly all of the major players in the case came from small towns around Charlotte. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantt's personal safety; they had learned that Chambers had plotted to have Ghantt killed in a murder for hire scheme using a "hit man" named Michael McKinney. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. Said Ghantt, one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Its kind of like that. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. Was that really what it was about? I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. At 6:40 p.m., he headed to his car along with three other employees before returning to the depository, where hed propped open the door. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the Super Heists on CNBC on Monday at 10 p.m. ET/PT. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. But his partners soon began to get greedy and were spending large amountswith Chambers and his wife, Michelle, even buying an exclusive mansion in cash. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. 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 made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. 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. I hear her typing. This article will teach you more about the SAT subject testsasync src='https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js' and help you decide whether you should take them. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Product details Publisher : John F Blair Pub (October 1, 2005) Hed be in contact. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. 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. Together with his wife, Chambers bought a new luxury home (upgrading from his mobile home), a BMW Z3, and some extravagant furnishings. Campbell helped plot the robbery of Loomis Charlotte vault on Oct. 4, 1997, with David Ghantt, a Loomis supervisor who stole the money, and Steve Chambers, a longtime Campbell friend. But it wasnt. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. A painting dubbed Velvet Elvis, which came out of the Cramer Mountain mansion owned by Steve Chambers, became notorious in the case. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Ridicule of those involved in what remains one of the largest cash thefts in U.S. history would soon begin. The details of the heist itself, coupled with the missteps the crew made after stealing the money, attracted the attention of writers and movie producers. "Wells Fargo and Loomis forming armored car company", Learn how and when to remove this template message, painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet, "FindACase | United States of America v. Steven Eugene Chambers", "The Unperfect Crime | New Dominion Pictures", "Sunday Evening/Late Night September 9, 2001", "Loomis Fargo heist: Q&A with guy who stole $17 million", "MASTERMINDS - Movie Production NotesCinemaReview.com", Ghantt and other gang members arrested in March 1998, Steven Chambers released from prison; announces he is a "retired criminal", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery&oldid=1132065054, Articles with dead external links from February 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Overcoming the mindset that led to the part David Ghantt played in the Loomis robbery and how he started on a new path was the subject of the book, Within days of the robbery, the case was depicted on the television criminal reporting show, An expanded two-hour special episode of the crime documentary series. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Soon everyone would know about the arrests in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist. David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. The police then called the FBI because most of the money handled at the facility belonged to banks, which technically made it a bank robbery a federal offense.[5]. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. And so this third camera caught everything that happened next. Ghantt didnt actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. Scary. He then proceeded to load about $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in $20 bills) into the back of a company van. All rights reserved. Ask below and we'll reply! Websacramento drug bust; montage los cabos wedding cost. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. Pocketing $50,000 for himself, that man, named David Ghantt, hopped into a car of his own and headed towards Mexico. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. [1], This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Philip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.[2]. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. All but one of the indicted pleaded guilty. 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. He was released in 2006. And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. Other noteworthy purchases included a diamond ring and Rolex for themselves, tanning beds and big-screen TVs for their home and breast implants for Chambers wife. And youre like, Come on parachute. 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. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. On March 1, 1988, Mexican police arrested Ghantt at Playa del Carmen. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. 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. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. 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