Just head on out. And so, he did. You're an idiot.'". I mentioned it to Kelly. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. But what did that mean? Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. "He was in tears. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. She was devastated, Diamant said. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. . You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. In real life: True. 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. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. An officer rang the doorbell. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. shes now Miss USA. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - hankyboy.com He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. The Columbia airport had no available flights. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. . They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Theres less security. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. They stocked a wine cellar. Was Queen Charlotte Black? She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Ghantt went on to explain that he left for his flight to Mexico with about $25,000, and that two or three deliveries of extra money was made to him by the man Chambers would pay to kill him. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. 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. and "I love money!" For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. One of them tapped him on the back. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. Contact Us | Loomis US I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. It was the first Saturday in October. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. In real life: True. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. . Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. And I was thinking about just showing up there. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Was that really what it was about? By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. Careers. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. He didn't want to abandon his parents. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. 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. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. October was "a blast," he said. What made her do it? When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. . In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. 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. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - legal-innovation.com But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. Steve led the planning. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. 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. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Kelly's company. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Sweat soaked David's uniform. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - phnxathletica.com Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. So I guess I have no regrets. He gave the rest to Kelly. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Kelly Campbell - Wikipedia But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. . As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. The figures can be astounding. They paid for all of it in cash. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. All rights reserved. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Question: You were a consultant? The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. 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.. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. David thought about it. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. 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. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Things were spiraling fast. He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. . 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. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. . I would call us friends. Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. "But I had to know.". In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. Im a very deliberate person. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. She was a wife and mother with two children. 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. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock.

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