When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' Was that really what it was about? Kelly drove David to the airport. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. 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. Its really just a matter of timing, more than anything. And she says, How much do you think wed get out of there? I said, Ten to 15 million. But I didnt really know.. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. You've violated that trust. They cursed. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. ". He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. 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. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. In real life: False. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Why fans love it. 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. The name she gave the pup is apropos. . So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. This time, David told McKinney the truth. . Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney . Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. You can seize property. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." In real life: True. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. 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. Steven Chambers [Misc. Our Benefits. . 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. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. He goes, My name is Bruno. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. 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. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. There it was, "The Heist." Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. Dependent care account. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. 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) Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. Kelly called David at. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Ghantt fled to Mexico. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. But it wasnt. Its kind of like that. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. Eric watched. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. 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. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Now two NC men face prison. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Some of the biggest numbers remaining on the Loomis collection board, as is the case with Campbell, belong to those who played the biggest role in the crime: David Ghantt, the Loomis employee who loaded all that money 2,800 pounds in all into the back of a company van before escaping to Mexico, has paid just under $50,000 of the $3.81 million he was assessed. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. His name was Corey. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. . "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Ghantt went on to explain that he rarely even looks at his debt statement to the government, but believes the IRS says he still owes them $3.8 million. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. 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. . "You" has three. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Kelly's company. . . This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. In real life: Yes and no. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Its everything thats coming north.. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Cool, I say. ". He flew in an ultra-light plane. Explain? He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? In real life: False. 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. Was Queen Charlotte Black? It affects everybody different. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. She could visit friends. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. David complained it wasn't enough. One number is working in Campbells favor. . That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. "I missed my family. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. She could spend time with her children and parents. 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. and "I love money!" Industry leading Training and Development. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. And then I could hear her laughing. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. About 200 keys dangled from it. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. 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. 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. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. ". Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted.
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