So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? 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. 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. 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. 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. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. She could spend time with her children and parents. "I" has one letter. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. Ghantt fled to Mexico. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. They sweated, though the night was cool. 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. In real life: True. 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] told me, 'Just think about it.' Visit us at Loomis.us. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." . On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. Him and I still talk every now and then. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. ". CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. 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. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. 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. Because surprise! Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. And robbing a truck was dangerous. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. Then another. >> 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,. He didn't want to abandon his parents. October was "a blast," he said. . After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. No regrets. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. She laughed for like 45 minutes. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? It was late in 1996. Cool, I say. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. . It was the first Saturday in October. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. His name was Corey. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. He flew in an ultra-light plane. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. So I was glad it was over. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. 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. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. And I was thinking about just showing up there. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. She was a wife and mother with two children. 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. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. And youre like, Come on parachute. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. 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. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. In real life: False. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. Eric Payne got out of prison in 2006 for his role in the heist and has since paid $11,357 on his $292,000 debt. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. 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. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. ", "I wouldn't do it. 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. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. 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. 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. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. 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. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. ". Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. and "I love money!" 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. The figures can be astounding. Yes, happy. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Explain? Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. They bought a BMW roadster. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. "I thought he was goofing around.". Not Ghantt. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. This is the person I counted as my friend. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. I didn't think I had the guts. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. 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. ". I'd probably change jobs. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. 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. 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. But it wasnt. He had stolen $17 million from 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. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. In real life: Yes and no. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Not a documentary. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. The money was heavy. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. 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. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. I don't blame him.". Kelly called David at. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. 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. David trusted her. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. You can seize property. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. There it was, "The Heist." As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. The van door opened. 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). Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. 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 . Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. 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. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' . So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. I would call us friends. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. Steve led the planning. I missed my wife. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . But in November, money ran low. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. That time in prison was actually good for me. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. There were times when I drank really heavily.". An officer rang the doorbell. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. 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. Health savings account and flexible spending account. 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." 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. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. In real life: True. . Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. 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. 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. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. Its everything thats coming north.. Was that really what it was about? He went deep-sea fishing. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. I've got a good woman.". . 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. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? Question: Should people go see this movie? "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. 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. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. 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. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. You're an idiot.'". 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. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime?