See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. And I was thinking about just showing up there. I work construction. You can garnish wages. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. 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. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. All but one of the indicted pleaded guilty. 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.. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesMichele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. His collection case closes in two years. 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. There was one problem: he forgot to remove the tape from the third security camera. 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. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. The first is that this was the same year, 1997, that the largest cash robbery in history took place within the same company. He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing "cubes of cash" and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. Twenty-one people were charged and convicted in the robbery, one of the biggest heists in U.S. history. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. The Dunbar Armored robbery Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. As you probably know, its loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. Not only was Ghantt the only unaccounted for employee the morning after the heist, there was also footage of Ghantt moving the cash into the back of the Loomis Fargo van. WebNo products in the cart. [15], "David Ghantt" redirects here. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. Did you know that the SAT offers subject exams, too? Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. 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. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. Soon everyone would know about the arrests in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. They called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. 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. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Neighbors and friends noticed the suspicious activity and reported the members to the FBI. And drastic it was. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. The robbers went on a huge spending spree, buying a massive home, artworks, big-screen TVs, expensive cars, pickup trucks, minivans, two boats, six motorcycles and several tanning beds. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out I mentioned it to Kelly. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Ask below and we'll reply! Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. $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. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Phillip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.October 1997 Loomis SAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. Ghantt was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases With the plan in place, Ghantt sent a newly employed co-worker home early (reportedly at 6 p.m) who had been assigned to train with him. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with 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. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report Then Michele made a trip to the bank. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. He goes, My name is Bruno. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it, Ghantt remembered later to the Gaston Gazette. Axios Charlotte is a local news initiative. 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. I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. 7 Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. 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. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. 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. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Heist: The Oddball Crew behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Jeff Diamant 12 Audio CD 9 offers from $5.86 About the Author Jeff Diamant covered the heist for the Charlotte Observer. 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. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the David Ghantt was the vault supervisor for Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored cars, which managed the transportation of large sums of cash between banks in North Carolina. WebTwo days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. (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. WebCampbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. While making only eight dollars an hour in his role as supervisor, Ghantt decided it was time to do something: I was unhappy with my life. Its everything thats coming north.. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and Ghantt and Campbell couldnt get to Mexico from Columbia, as there were no international flights being offered out of the hub, which they would have known, had they called ahead. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. In addition to his phone calls with Ghantt, Chambers began extravagantly spending the money, even though the co-conspirators had agreed to lay low for a year or two. We were two paychecks away from being homeless at any given time.. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. 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. And youre like, Come on parachute. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. In spite of Chambers assurance that the money was, you know, totally not illegally acquired, the teller remained suspicious, especially because the stacks of cash still had Loomis Fargo wrappers on them. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. When Ghantt called Chambers to have the latter wire him more money, Chambers sent just a few thousand dollars. 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. Chambers got 11 years. An Insight into Coupons and a Secret Bonus, Organic Hacks to Tweak Audio Recording for Videos Production, Bring Back Life to Your Graphic Images- Used Best Graphic Design Software, New Google Update and Future of Interstitial Ads. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. WebWas Loomis Fargo heist real? I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Loomis Fargo employee David Ghantt and his partners nearly pulled off the perfect crime, but it would be their lavish spending, and an alleged murder plot, that would be their undoing. WebThe Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was a robbery of $17.3 million in cash from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. The [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. 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.. WebHolding 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 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. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. As the FBI listened in to Chambers calls, they discovered that he was also planning to have Ghantt assassinated, hoping to keep all the money for himself. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. Campbell 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 otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? 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. 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. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. WebAydin Properties > Uncategorized > real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Four more people were also charged with laundering, bringing the grand total to more than twenty. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. On March 1, 1988, Mexican police arrested Ghantt at Playa del Carmen. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. And so this third camera caught everything that happened next. 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. You can read more at, Dilworth Coffee is coming to the Fifth Third Center. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. 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. 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. 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. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. 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 threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. Chambers served 11 years before being released. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. More than 2 million dollars is still missing to this day. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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 Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. 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. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. 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