Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. He couldn't talk.". And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. 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. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. 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. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. The name she gave the pup is apropos. 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. "But I had to know.". In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. Theres less security. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. She was devastated, Diamant said. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. 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. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. 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. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. They put up mauve wallpaper. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. 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. She could spend time with her children and parents. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. 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. And then I could hear her laughing. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. David trusted her. 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. In a word, "Teamwork. 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. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Careers. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. In real life: True. Question: Should people go see this movie? At 7:45, David had finished loading. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. I hope everyone has moved on. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. 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. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Ghantt fled to Mexico. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. By . It was late in 1996. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. 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. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. So I was glad it was over. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. Things were spiraling fast. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. Michele received the best gift of the night. 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. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. 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. 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. And robbing a truck was dangerous. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Still, she wasn't happy. The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. 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. Some of that money is just gone. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. "I" has one letter. 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. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. 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. 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. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. 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. 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. All were convicted. . 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. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. Dependent care account. 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. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. 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. She also must . I was burned out and just didn't know it. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Dental plans . I've got a good woman.". He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. 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) At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. They cursed. Were others involved? Its hilarious. That was the most painful truth to come to. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. 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. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. 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. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. 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. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. She laughed for like 45 minutes. Steven Chambers [Misc. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. 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. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. . Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Him and I still talk every now and then. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Why fans love it. 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. ". The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. Sweat soaked David's uniform. She was a wife and mother with two children. 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. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. But what did that mean? When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Then another. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. 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. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. 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. ", "Even then . He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. The cash was covered with dog food. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. An officer rang the doorbell. You've violated that trust. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. 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. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? 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. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. "I thought he was goofing around.". Ghantt:It's a comedy. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. There had been no signs. You can seize property. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. . And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. I didnt pick the heist team. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. It was the first Saturday in October. His name was Corey. 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. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. 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. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. . 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. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. . Industry leading Training and Development. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. 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. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. . They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. 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. 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.
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