Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. On similar grounds, four other people were ultimately also charged with money laundering. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. All but one of the indicted pleaded guilty. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Officials suspected that the extravagant purchases stemmed from the fact that all involved got far more money than they anticipated and literally didnt know how to spend or get rid of it, which is perhaps backed up by the fact that Chambers wife once walked into a Belmont Wachovia with $200,000 in a briefcase wanting to know how much she could deposit without the bank reporting it to officials. David Ghantt was portrayed by Zackary Hatfield. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. All rights reserved. His collection case closes in two years. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. 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. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. Webbird adoption adelaide real life kelly campbell loomis fargo. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. 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. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Ghantt and Campbell couldnt get to Mexico from Columbia, as there were no international flights being offered out of the hub, which they would have known, had they called ahead. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. speedway of nations manchester 2021. rossignol skis experience 88 We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. [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. 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. The Latest Innovations That Are Driving The Vehicle Industry Forward, More than $100 million of property stolen, Diamonds, gold, silver and other type of jewelry. 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. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and It happened on October 4, a Saturday. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. Her case closes in 2025. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. Most high schools offer a variety of history classes, so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. With the plan in place, Ghantt sent a newly employed co-worker home early (reportedly at 6 p.m) who had been assigned to train with him. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. Fed up, exhausted, and seeing a way out, Ghantt agreed. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. 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. All but one of the defendants pleaded guilty. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. Who was the FBI agent in the movie Masterminds? He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing "cubes of cash" and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. He became the target of a nationwide FBI manhunt and was arrested five months later near the Mexican resort of Cozumel. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such as scuba diving and parasailing. Thats one of my personality flaws. 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. Chambers was a small-time crook who suggested to Campbell that they rob Loomis Fargo. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. Not only was Ghantt the only unaccounted for employee the morning after the heist, there was also footage of Ghantt moving the cash into the back of the Loomis Fargo van. 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. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. From there, hed meet Campbell, Chambers and Grant, a friend of Chambers, in a parking lot, from where they would head to an industrial warehouse and load all but $50,000 into a rental van. Todd Williamson/Getty ImagesDavid Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. The other, suggested bythen-Observer reporter Jeff Diamant, says that Campbell created the plan with Steve Chambers,a drug dealer who was facing charges for writing $30,000 worth of bad checks, and later got Ghantt involved. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. In spite of Chambers assurance that the money was, you know, totally not illegally acquired, the teller remained suspicious, especially because the stacks of cash still had Loomis Fargo wrappers on them. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. 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. And so, he told her, Google my name. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Was Loomis Fargo heist real? But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. Something was going on in Cramerton, the multiple callers said. The Dunbar Armored robbery Its everything thats coming north.. 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. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Ghantt would take $50,000, as much as could legally be carried across the border without questions, and flee to Mexico. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. The Loomis Fargo heist became something of a media lightning rod. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $30.5 million in 2020). The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. The plan went off with few problems, but after Ghantt was safely in Mexico, his partners were left storing large amounts of cash. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. Soon everyone would know about the arrests in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? The Dunbar Armored robbery is the largest cash robbery to have occurred in the United States. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. 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. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. There was, however, one problem with his plan. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. 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. While Ghantt moved to Mexico to let things cool down after the heist, his robbery cohorts stayed in North Carolina with the bulk of the money. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. 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. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. Chambers, his wife, and several of their accomplices were arrested the next day. So I was glad it was over. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it, Ghantt remembered later to the Gaston Gazette. Its in the ether. Wyatt Redd is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. WebCampbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report 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. Dont worry, its not drug money.. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. She wondered how much she could deposit without attracting the attention of the FBI, so she decided to just ask the teller: How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds? she asked. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. One number is working in Campbells favor. You can seize property. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. Join the 119,947 smart Charlotteans that receive our daily newsletter. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. 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