Dental plans . 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. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. "I work construction. Its hilarious. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. October was "a blast," he said. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. 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. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. . Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. 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. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. 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.. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. ". Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. David complained it wasn't enough. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Because surprise! Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". 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. I've got a good woman.". 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. 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. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. . That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? David thought about it. She laughed for like 45 minutes. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Industry leading Training and Development. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . 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. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Were others involved? real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. "Love" has four. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. . The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. His name was Corey. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. She could spend time with her children and parents. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. 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. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. Its kind of like that. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Besides her prison sentence . I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. I hope everyone has moved on. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David 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. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. 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. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. In real life: False. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Campbell was another employee at Loomis Fargo and she and Ghantt quickly struck up a relationship, one that Campbell denies was ever romantic though FBI evidence says otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. 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. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? . They paid for all of it in cash. Everybody seemed stunned. I mentioned it to Kelly. 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. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. 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. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. 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. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. You have to remember that it's Hollywood and they'll take what was a minor event and they'll blow it up and make it as funny as they can.". Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. All were convicted. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . 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. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. 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. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. 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. The money was heavy. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. That time in prison was actually good for me. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' 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. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. 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. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. We got this guy named Bruno. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. shes now Miss USA. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. 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. So I was glad it was over. So I guess I have no regrets. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. . I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. Question: You were a consultant? He didnt even really question me. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. ". In real life: True. 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. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. 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. I don't blame him.". The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. In real life: Yes and no. "I" has one letter. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. 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. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. 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. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. It was his goodbye. 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. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. 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 was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. 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 wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. ". I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. 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've violated that trust. Health savings account and flexible spending account. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. 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. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. The cash was covered with dog food. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Where was Ghantt? And I said, Hey, man, I got this. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Kelly was no criminal. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. 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. I loved it. Still, she wasn't happy. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. Some of that money is just gone. 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. 27 febrero, 2023 . In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. 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. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. It changes you. 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 was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. Visit us at Loomis.us. . About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. She also must . No dry runs, no rehearsals. ". 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. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. . 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. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Military + Veterans. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico.