real life kelly campbell loomis fargo

They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. 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. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. 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. Contact Us | Loomis US Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. On Oct. 7, 1997, two FBI agents arrived at Kelly Campbell's home after two Loomis employees had told agents she and David had once dated. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba Hes very articulate. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. In real life: False. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Steve led the planning. She could spend time with her children and parents. Loomis - Home 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. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. . Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. Yes, happy. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. 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. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. There had been no signs. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Posted on . Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. 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. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. What made her do it? ", "I wouldn't do it. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. And after two years, you're just a file." Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. . Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Scary. I would call us friends. 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. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Military + Veterans. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Its everything thats coming north.. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. 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. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. >> 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,. On October 5, 1997, FBI agents gathered at the Loomis, Fargo & Co. warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, to watch a security videotape of a man loading stacks of cash into a pushcart and wheeling them from the vault. . Things started to go south the night of the robbery. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. 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. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. . It affects everybody different. Or that it was an inheritance. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. The Columbia airport had no available flights. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com They were the butt of a national joke. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. 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. But what did that mean? Question: You were a consultant? Exciting. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. 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. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. "I was unhappy with my life. 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. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Ghantt:It's a comedy. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. Steven Chambers [Misc. She could visit friends. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. Kelly Loomis Facebook, Instagram & Twitter on PeekYou "I work construction. 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.. 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. By . It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. 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. About 200 keys dangled from it. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Some of that money is just gone. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. Dental plans . He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. 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. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Michele received the best gift of the night. Things were spiraling fast. 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. There it was, "The Heist." But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. 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. Then another. Is he telling the truth? She just called me up on the phone and said, Hey, lets meet one day after work. And then, we were talking and she says, How do you feel about robbing Loomis Fargo? Ghantt tells me. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. In real life: False. . But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. I wanted to get as far away as I could. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. 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. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. This time, David told McKinney the truth. You might as well go all the way now.". 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. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? No hard feelings. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. October was "a blast," he said. 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. Was that really what it was about? 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. Too stupid to be true? Five 'Masterminds' missteps that actually happened In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. The money was heavy. . Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. I loved it. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. Careers. shes now Miss USA. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . They bought a BMW roadster. Her case closes in 2025. Not Ghantt. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. "Love" has four. . 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. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. I knew it was just a matter of time. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. 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. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' 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. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record No dry runs, no rehearsals. Man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago now a 'normal guy Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. 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. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Ghantt fled to Mexico. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film Mine did. 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) Why fans love it. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. 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. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. In real life: Yes and no. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. . So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. Visit us at Loomis.us. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News The cash was covered with dog food. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. I missed my wife. But in November, money ran low. They cursed. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. 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. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. All rights reserved. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. Job Search - Career Portal - Dayforce HCM And I said, Hey, man, I got this. 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. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. You're an idiot.'". Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft by ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] ". 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." Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. 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. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. The van door opened. Sweat soaked David's uniform. Dependent care account. 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. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. ", "Even then . In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft.

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