If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. >> 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,. . She could visit friends. 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. Ghantt fled to Mexico. 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. 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.. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room.
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com 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. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Were others involved? ". Him and I still talk every now and then. 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. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. And after two years, you're just a file." Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. They were the butt of a national joke. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. But the idea of all that money pulled at 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. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. . In real life: False. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. In real life: False. and "I'm rich!". Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. And youre like, Come on parachute. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. . You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. 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. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. He didnt even really question me. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true?
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. 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. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. The pager entry was 1-4-3. 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. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. The figures can be astounding. I hear her typing. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Where was Ghantt? 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. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. 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. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. 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.. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. And then I could hear her laughing. 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. 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. . For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Not Ghantt. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? 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.". Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". 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. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. . He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. shes now Miss USA. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. It affects everybody different. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. . Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist.
He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. She laughed for like 45 minutes. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. Her case closes in 2025. 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. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. Michele received the best gift of the night. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. One number is working in Campbells favor. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. . Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. 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." 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. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. I mentioned it to Kelly. Scary. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. One of them tapped him on the back. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. . Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. 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. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands.
At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said.
Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997 I wanted to get as far away as I could. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . There was, however, one problem with his plan. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. and "I love money!" 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 wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. About 200 keys dangled from it.
1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery - Strange Unexplained Mysteries I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there.
Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie She also must .
'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? Dental plans .
October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery - Wikipedia I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? We got this guy named Bruno. In real life: Mostly true. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. "I" has one letter.
real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - legal-innovation.com In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. 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. Question: You went to Mexico. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. . 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. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. 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. Besides her prison sentence . "I missed my family. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun.