And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Theres no management around. Items included a velvet Elvis painting, 1998 BMW, 17-foot motorboat and Harley Davidson. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? Did you know that the SAT offers subject exams, too? And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Four more people were also charged with laundering, bringing the grand total to more than twenty. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Todd Williamson/Getty ImagesDavid Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. On similar grounds, four other people were ultimately also charged with money laundering. 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. His collection case closes in two years. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? It happened on October 4, a Saturday. 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. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. At 6:40 p.m., he headed to his car along with three other employees before returning to the depository, where hed propped open the door. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), DeSantis Awards $100M for Hurricane Erosion Recovery Efforts, Judge Orders Release of Video of Inmate Who Mutilated Self, Indiana Man Charged After Son in Diaper Points Gun at People, California Do Not Sell My Personal Information Request. It changes you. 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. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. [7][8], Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants. October 26, 1999. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Campbellwho was married herselfrepresented something new and exciting. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". So I was glad it was over. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. WebTwo days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. 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. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. On July 10, Jon Daly joined the cast of the film to play an FBI agent. Dont worry, its not drug money.. While she made small deposits at first, she became more reckless, eventually making a deposit of thousands of dollars in cash, telling the teller not to worry: Its not drug money.. Too bad it was so poorly planned. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Im a very deliberate person. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $30.5 million in 2020). In the film, Jason Sudeikis plays a sadistic assassin hired to knock off Ghantt, who befriends him. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. Campbell and Chambers made themselves easy to catch, what with their lavish spending. Authorities said they hired a man named Michael McKinney to meet up with Ghantt and kill him, under the guise that he was planning to give Ghantt more of the money he was owed. Just head on out. And so, he did. WebCampbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. [1] Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers's (and his wife's) activities, but it was not until the FBI recorded a phone call from Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. He became the target of a nationwide FBI manhunt and was arrested five months later near the Mexican resort of Cozumel. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. Neighbors and friends noticed the suspicious activity and reported the members to the FBI. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. WebWho was involved in the Loomis Fargo robbery? I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. And drastic it was. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. 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 Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when "the heat was off," Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. The conversations werent made up of much more than daydreams that took the vague shape of plansuntilCampbell mentioned that she had a high school friend with connections that could actually get it done. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt of an old high school friend of hers, Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt in executing a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. David Ghantt attends the after party for the Premiere Of Relativity Media's "Masterminds" on September 26, 2016 in Hollywood, California. 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. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. Ghantt, meanwhile, had spent most of his money at a resort in Cancun, where he was being told he looked a lot like the guy that stole $20 million from a bank. 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. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. 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. Investigators also found Ghantt's pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. All rights reserved. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. WebPerry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. Chambers served 11 years before being released. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. 4 What is the largest armored car robbery? They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. In the end, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo heist. They got to work planning the straightforward heist that would rely on Ghantts existing access to the vault, fewer staff at the warehouse on the weekends, and the ability to use one of the companys armored trucks to make the successful getaway. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. Web12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. I was just going to get the money into the van. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. That was great. Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. All but one of the indicted pleaded guilty. The She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. 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. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. When Ghantt called Chambers to have the latter wire him more money, Chambers sent just a few thousand dollars. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. 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.. 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. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. 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. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. And going to see the Mayan ruins. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Scary. WebWord trickled in to the FBI that Ghantt had a romantic interest in a former coworker, Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. Ridicule of those involved in what remains one of the largest cash thefts in U.S. history would soon begin. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. His name was Corey. But because he still owes millions to the IRS, he couldnt be paid. Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell and other members of the ring were arrested. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. You can garnish wages. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Ghantt didnt actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it. She will never get beyond the debt. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Few thousand Dollars at small sailboats and real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist not wrong, okay also purchased tanning beds, a pool,! Hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico was extravagant at first hes got a brown paper bag in his.!, 10 oclock as much cash as they could carry into a luxury mansion a... 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