But in November, money ran low. They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. In real life: False. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Our Benefits. By . This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. It affects everybody different. ", "Even then . Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. 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. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' All I needed was a change of pace.". The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. She could visit friends. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. And robbing a truck was dangerous. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. 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. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. It was late in 1996. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. He didn't want to abandon his parents. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. . Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. Was that really what it was about? He kept looking over his shoulder. ". Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. . . At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Its everything thats coming north.. She laughed for like 45 minutes. 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. You might as well go all the way now.". Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. So I guess I have no regrets. Thats one of my personality flaws. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. I didnt pick the heist team. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997, FILE - 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 home near Mount Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. Not a documentary. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Question: You went to Mexico. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. ". Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. Its kind of like that. 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. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. This is the person I counted as my friend. His name was Corey. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. Its in the ether. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". 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. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. FILE - 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 home near Mount Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. I was just going to get the money into the van. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. No regrets. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Hes well thought-out. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. 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. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Then another. In a word, "Teamwork. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Exciting. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. "He was in tears. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Dependent care account. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. His collection case closes in two years. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. That was great. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. But as he later recalled to the media, as soon as he stepped through those big-box doors, he realized he was flush with cash, and he didnt need to shop at Walmart ever again. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. 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 couldn't talk.". By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Im a very deliberate person. There were times when I drank really heavily.". She tried to apologize for the murder plot. . Ghantt fled to Mexico. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly 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.. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs..