Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? "You" has three. 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. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. David trusted her. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. 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. He goes, My name is Bruno. 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. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Did you get paid? He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Or that it was an inheritance. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. Hes well thought-out. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. 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. Explain? And going to see the Mayan ruins. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. She could spend time with her children and parents. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". This is the person I counted as my friend. . "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' 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. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. An officer rang the doorbell. Its in the ether. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . Question: You were a consultant? He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. In real life: False. And I was thinking about just showing up there. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. And so, he told her, Google my name. Theres less security. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' All were convicted. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. We got this guy named Bruno. Where was Ghantt? Besides her prison sentence . Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. 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. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. . "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. >> 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,. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. Then another. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. I hear her typing. 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. 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. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. Hed be in contact. Its kind of like that. Some of that money is just gone. 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. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. 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. Scary. I knew it was just a matter of time. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. But in November, money ran low. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. The name she gave the pup is apropos. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. . 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 real life: Mostly true. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. You can garnish wages. In real life: Yes and no. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. David thought about it. 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. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. 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. Exciting. She declined to take a lie-detector test. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly 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. 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. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. 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. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. In a word, "Teamwork. 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. The pager entry was 1-4-3. All I needed was a change of pace.". . I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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 had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Sweat soaked David's uniform. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. 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 and happy. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. At 7:45, David had finished loading. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. And youre like, Come on parachute. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. They paid for all of it in cash. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. Gaston County residents remember how that worked out. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. 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. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Steve led the planning. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Posted on . Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Eric watched. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. It affects everybody different. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. The cash was covered with dog food. I would call us friends. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Once in a lifetime, Murdaugh verdict sends a Lowcountry message: No one is above the law | Opinion, Charlotte Waffle House found with live roach, unclean equipment during health inspection. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. She could visit friends. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Still, she wasn't happy. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. . Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? 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. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. shes now Miss USA. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. 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. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. 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. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. 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. ". Cool, I say. What made her do it? 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. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. And then I could hear her laughing. There had been no signs. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. Were others involved? It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. Kelly was no criminal. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Just head on out. And so, he did. Our Benefits. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. One of them tapped him on the back. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. He didnt even really question me. 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.