You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. While they had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, Chambers had no intention of following those rules. The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. On the evening ofOctober 4, 1997, the Loomis Fargo & Co branch in Charlotte, North Carolina was in the process of being plundered. #7 Loomis Fargo, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1997 . Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. They didnt stop there, they then proceeded to buy luxury cars, big-screen TVs and other extravagant items. From the start, David Ghatt was considered to be a prime suspect. The FBI investigation was able to connect Ghantt to Campbell quickly. So they went to Mexico and arrested Ghantt in order to protect him. The man at the center of that heist was David Scott Ghantt. It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. The plan of the Loomis Fargo heist was for Ghantt to commit an actual robbery and then flee to Mexico City, where he would stay until enough time passed to enter the United States. In his hurry, Ghantt had simply overlooked the third security camera. David Ghantt: Oh, God! 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. David's crush and former co-worker, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig), approaches David about robbing the very company that he works for.Despite the lack of intelligence, Ghantt somehow pulls off the heist . It's based on the true story of David Ghantt (Galifianikas), a vault supervisor at the Charlotte Loomis Fargo depository in Uptown Charlotte that was involved in the second largest cash robbery in history, making off with $17.4 million ($25 million today). Masterminds.2016.MULTi.1080p.BluRay.x264-CINeHD. David Ghantt 2) A joke that gave birth to an idea. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. Within the next two days, investigators found an abandoned van with the security tapes and a staggering $3.3 million! They drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. jim martin death couples massage class san diego beaver falls football real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. The 2015 revised edition of former Observer reporter Jeff Diamants book, Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft, written by one of the lead reporters who covered the heist and its aftermath. From my standpoint it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. stockpile guns, Timeline puts Murdaugh at crime scene, SC prosecutor says in trial closing after Moselle visit, Get ready for less sleep in Charlotte. Accompanying her . Question: You went to Mexico. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. The Legend of the Green Man: Raymond Robinson, The Incredible Dunkirk Evacuation- in rare pictures, Elizabethan Food and Drink- Brief History & Key Facts, 10 Famous Female Warriors Who Made Their Mark On History, 15 Intriguing Facts About The Middle Ages. I found the young woman who worked as a hotel receptionist and remembered many details about Ghantt: how he stayed in Room 101 eating M&Ms, chain-smoking Marlboro Lights, reading Superman comics and listening to the Eagles, DePriest wrote. Steve decided to send his cousin, Nathan with money down to Mexico as a ruse, while Mike the bodyguard would follow behind to take care of Ghantt. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. However, they didnt heed their own advice. Six other people also were arrested, including a couple who suddenly moved from a trailer to a $635,000 house. NEWS. 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. "I work construction. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. 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 real-life, Ghantt, then 27, used his access to swipe $17 million, later fleeing to Mexico with $25,000 of it stashed into the legs of pantyhose that he wore as a money belt; while he waited . 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 group's demise. Question: You were a consultant? Kelly Campbell: [looks at his buttocks] I think that bullet just went straight between your cheeks. I knew it was just a matter of time. This former Kings Mountain resident finished his shift as a vault supervisor for the branch in Charlotte. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. They soon realised that their joke was not a far-fetched idea. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Man died Wednesday. Heres how to catch up on one of the Charlotte areas strangest stories. Popular Lake Norman pub set to reopen after a major face lift. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. No hard feelings. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. 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. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. One fact at a time! But before the hit could be carried out, the FBI swooped in and arrested Ghantt and the others. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution.It was the fourth-most severe sentence given in the case, which has 21 defendants. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Not a documentary. The Gaston Gazette interviewed Ghantt, whos now in his late 40s and living as a free man in Florida. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. Deputies in Davidson County rushed to help a 69-year-old man they'd found unresponsive in his house following a welfare check. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. Federal Judge Graham Mullen sentenced her to between those lengths. LRM had an exclusive phone . During the next few months they bought a BMW-Z3 roadster and tens of thousands of dollars in antiques, furniture and decorations. Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial The plan was for Ghantt to commit the Loomis Fargo heist and then quickly leave the country for Mexico. FBI agents got to him first. He was like OK, yeah, we can do that, she recalled. I appreciate your kind words! Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. 0:44. Steve hires hitman Mike McKinney to kill David, but the two become friends. 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 loves his motorcycle and enjoys going fishing and, while hes sorry for the past, hes not ashamed to talk about it. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Her sentence would've been ``substantially' less if she hadn't kept it, officials said. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. David Ghantt received a sentence of over seven years. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Its like, me and you sat down, I have access to pie, you like pie, all I want is my share of the pie. Their relationship continued after she left the company. David gets Steve to confess to planning the heist. And the company soon calculated how much was missing--$17 million. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. As Ghantt was the only employee absent, he was marked as the obvious suspect. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. Diese Aufgabe ist allerdings weitaus weniger spannend, als sie sich anhrt, und so ist Davids Tageshhepunkt nicht das Verladen der Millionen, sondern der tgliche Flirt mit seiner Kollegin Kelly. A series of snapshots published in the Observer on March 8, 1998, just as the FBI and everyone else was getting a grip on just how strange the heist had been. 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, To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the, Rebel Wilson 'collapsed' after Ramona Agruma proposal: 'I was so overwhelmed', Amy Grant recalls being 'so scared' to return to touring following serious bike accident, Travis Scott being sought by NYPD after alleged nightclub assault, Zachary Levi talks Shazam! future after DC shake-up: 'I'll keep playing this role as long as I can', Get your Din Djarin on with this replica 'Mandalorian' helmet. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. The tapes showed Ghantt removing cash cubes and loading them into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. Perry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; and Eric Haley Payne. Eventually, the two teamed up with a few other people and hatched plans for a heist. David! The main players had time to conspicuously spend some of their money and, in the case of David Scott Ghantt, the Loomis Fargo employee who removed the money from the vault, flee to Mexico. I worked sometimes 75-80 hours a week for $ 8.15 an hour, I didn't even have a real life at home because I was never there, I worked all the time and was unhappy, which is understandable considering how old I was then. They already knew who he was-David Ghantt, a Loomis Fargo employee. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. Needless to say that things didn't go as planned. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. 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 . Kelly Campbell. He left for the border, winding up at the popular Yucatan Peninsula resort island. On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. Further stating that it was not drug money. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. Crimes, guns, suspensions and dropouts soar in NC public schools after the pandemic. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. There was a book published in 2002 as well, by author Jeff Diamant called,Heist! You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. Within a few months, they were arrested. All were convicted. Ghantt began to complain vocally. Kelly : No, Rio. View contact info: Address, Phone, Email & Photos. 0:00. But there was just one thing the group hadnt been counting on: the massive weight of that amount of cash. 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 theyve ever had. What we know. On March 29 of last year, in the largest armored car heist in U.S. history, $18.8 million was taken from Loomis, Fargo in Jacksonville, Fla. An employee, Philip Noel Johnson , was arrested Aug.30 in connection with that theft, All but $186,000 was recovered. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. 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 . Ghantt says he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Regular folks, big dreams and a ton of money: How the Loomis Fargo heist happened. Meanwhile, Chambers would hold on to most of the cash and send Ghantt small amounts of money as and when required. As Ghantt and seven others await hearings on charges from the October theft, authorities still have a big unanswered question: Where's most of the money? where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt . 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. 2023 Cox Media Group. That 3-carat ring came back to haunt Michele Chambers at Tuesday's hearing. ``There are many people with those factors who don't resort to crime,' he said. . I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to . To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. Did you get paid? Le seul rayon de soleil dans son existence banale, c'est sa jolie collgue, Kelly Campbell. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. Secondly, Where is David Scott Ghantt now? Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. I felt stiff and one day the jokes during the break about the robbery of that place suddenly didn't look so obvious. A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. However, he had not perceived the weight of a large sum of money. David Ghantt struck up a friendship with Kelly Campbell, a coworker who saw eye to eye with him. FINANCE. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, not wanting to keep a low profile. David Ghantt served as an unpaid consultant to the film. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. This story was originally published October 1, 2017, 6:44 PM. It's said that Chambers approached Campbell in the summer of 1997 about executing a $17.3 million robbery (which today means $ 25.9 million) at her former job. LIFE. 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.". Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Day 27 live updates: Murdaugh family weapons killed victims, SC prosecutor says in closing, Woman who caused death of Charlotte athlete takes plea deal + NC police depts. "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. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. ``This defendant was second to Steve Chambers in (benefiting) from the crime,' he said. 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