Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. 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 and his wife, Michelle, moved from their mobile home in Lincoln County to a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section of Cramerton. 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.. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the s Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. I mentioned it to Kelly. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. If I could get far enough away in a very short amount of time, my odds of getting away with it were pretty high, Ghantt said. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian. 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 started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out From there, hed meet Campbell, Chambers and Grant, a friend of Chambers, in a parking lot, from where they would head to an industrial warehouse and load all but $50,000 into a rental van. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. It was the first Saturday in October. By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. Its everything thats coming north.. Who pulled off the biggest heist in history? David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. It affects everybody different. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. The only defendant to not plead guilty, Chambers's attorney Jeff Guller, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to eight years in prison. But because he still owes millions to the IRS, he couldnt be paid. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. 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. But his partners soon began to get greedy and were spending large amountswith Chambers and his wife, Michelle, even buying an exclusive mansion in cash. He then proceeded to load about $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in $20 bills) into the back of a company van. Something was going on in Cramerton, the multiple callers said. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. Ghantts accomplices soon showed up but now they had another problem. After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. cheap beachfront property for sale in italy. And youre like, Come on parachute. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. ), and having explosive diarrhea in a public swimming pool (who knew Zach Galifianakis was filled with caramel syrup?). WebCampbell 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 Its hilarious. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. WebLoomis Fargo Robbery There is a vault reserved for only the most outrageous, preposterous, and far-fetched real life stories. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. We were two paychecks away from being homeless at any given time.. FBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Scary. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. He was released in 2006. 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. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. WebWho was involved in the Loomis Fargo robbery? Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. Ask questions; get answers. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. Dont worry, its not drug money.. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell, and some other notable parties were arrested in Charlotte. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Wyatt Redd is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. In 1997, six men pulled off what remains the biggest cash heist in the history of the United States. WebFILE - 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 Get the latest articles and test prep tips! 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. WebSteven Chambers [Misc. 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. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. All rights reserved. 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. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. Before he left, he went into his managers office and removed tapes from two of the security cameras. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. In total, 24 people were convicted. The figures can be astounding. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. 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. A Comprehensive Guide. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. You can garnish wages. Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? Dozens of FBI agents everywhere. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell and other members of the ring were arrested. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. And going to see the Mayan ruins. The move bought him a little extra time to make his escape. 6 Is Kelly Campbell married to ghantt? Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. If you can see the obvious flaw in this plan, namely that Chambers would have no reason whatsoever to actually wire Ghantt any money, then congratulations. So with the assistance of a co-worker and possible love interest as well as a small-time criminal, David Ghantt pulled off the then-second-largest cash heist in U.S. history. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, Steven Chambers and Kelly Jane Campbell, also are charged with plotting to kill Ghantt. His name was Corey. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Chambers, it turned out, became the biggest source of evidence for the FBI. Instead, the bandits just started throwing as much money as they could into the van until they couldnt fit anymore. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. You know Loomis because of their armored cash vehicles, and when they acquired Wells Fargo Armored, turned into Loomis, Fargo & Co. Ghantt, who had been with the bank since 1994, was promoted from driver to vault supervisor in 1997, where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt mixed up in the plans for the heist after she left Loomis. Campbell, for her part, bought a Toyota van in two installments. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. 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. And drastic it was. Either way, intothe picture walks Steve Chambers and a group of friends that would set the plan in motion. According to an Observer article, signs point to Campbells involvement stemming from the desire to experience what it was like to be rich. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, The So-Called Female Delusion Calculator Doesnt Add Up, I Wore Magnetic Underwear for a Week to See If It Would Give Me a Boner of Steel, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. This article will teach you more about the SAT subject testsasync src='https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js' and help you decide whether you should take them. Eight people were indicted for bank larceny and money laundering,whichnine friends and relatives were also charged for, as theyd co-signed safe deposit boxes to store some of the cash. She laughed for like 45 minutes. When the rest of the Loomis Fargo employees showed up the next morning and found that they couldnt open the vault, they called the police. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the groups demise. All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. 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. Her case closes in 2025. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. More than 2 million dollars is still missing to this day. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. 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