She didn't plan to move to Mexico. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? Scary. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. 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. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. The case resurfaced in the federal courts on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte posted a public reminder in the case file of Loomis defendant Kelly Campbell that she had fallen behind in her restitution. 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. It is based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina, which was the subject of the 2016 American comedy film Masterminds. Theres less security. . Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. "Love" has four. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Eric watched. . 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. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. I missed my wife. I've got a good woman.". No dry runs, no rehearsals. 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. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. A former FBI agent who helped crack the case sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. 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.. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. The figures can be astounding. Campbell helped plot the robbery of Loomis Charlotte vault on Oct. 4, 1997, with David Ghantt, a Loomis supervisor who stole the money, and Steve Chambers, a longtime Campbell friend. . Kelly Loomis. He couldn't talk.". 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. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. . However, the fact that a man who formerly lived in a mobile home was lavishly spending money on a luxury home ($635,000 in cash), expensive cars, and a ring ($42,000 in cash) eventually made it easy to connect the dots. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Ghantt studied how to rob his employer . The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. I was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. His collection case closes in two years. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. 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. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. David trusted her. 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. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' Money. Chambers got 11 years. Masterminds is a 2016 American crime comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery in North Carolina. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. We got this guy named Bruno. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. Everybody seemed stunned. Kelly's company. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. Theres barely a laugh in the entire film, which looks like it was shot entirely in one take while the actors were still working out their characters. ". Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. It was the first Saturday in October. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. In a word, "Teamwork. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Just head on out. And so, he did. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) This robbery is the largest cash robbery on U.S. soil. 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.. Warning! What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. The picture, which is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey, stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis . Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. She laughed for like 45 minutes. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily . . More agents waited outside to arrest them. What made her do it? He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. . They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. 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. Exciting. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. She could spend time with her children and parents. Loomis, then known as Loomis Fargo, experienced two inside jobs in 1997, for $17.3 million and $18.8 million. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. He didn't want to abandon his parents. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Then another. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. "For the first year, they're all over you. I was just going to get the money into the van. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. She was a wife and mother with two children. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. I don't blame him.". The towns booming construction industry attracts workers from around the country. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. All rights reserved. Here, he amps up the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. and "I'm rich!". She tried to apologize for the murder plot. His name was Corey. Its about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the hillbillly heist the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. Was the temptation too much? A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. He learned to parachute. . . Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Kelly Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced in October. 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. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Jared Hess directed Masterminds, and god bless the guy, but if Gentlemen Broncos and Nacho Libre were not proof enough that Napoleon Dynamite was a fluke, Masterminds should seal the deal. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. People dont seem to understand human nature. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. 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. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. I loved it. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. It, too, has changed hands several times. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. 0 Comments Get local news delivered to your inbox! Even the outtakes during the credits are bad. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Its hilarious. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. Masterminds is an atrociously bad comedy, and absolutely everyone is to blame. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. He flew in an ultra-light plane. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. Steve Chambers and his wife (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) were a little more difficult to connect to the heist. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. Its in the ether. All I needed was a change of pace.". As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. 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. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. "But I had to know.". 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. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. In the meantime, however, Chambers not only refused to wire money to Ghantt in Mexico, but ultimately hired a hitman (Jason Sudeikis) to take him out. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. 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. The participants in the heist also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. 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. Search Tools . 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. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. Things were spiraling fast. You're an idiot.'". [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. "I missed my family. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Him and I still talk every now and then. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. It was late in 1996. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. You can seize property. and "I love money!" Then we went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, Wydra said. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. 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. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. . Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The money was heavy. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. 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,. The modern company was formed in 1997 by the consolidation of two armoured security concerns, Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc. Their international network covers over 200 operating locations in the US and eleven western European countries. hippie fest 2022 michigan; family picture poses for 5 adults; unforgettable who killed rachel; pacific northwest college of art notable alumni; adler sense of belonging family constellation ", "I wouldn't do it. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. 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. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. kellis@gastongazette.com 0:04 1:38 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. Kristen Wiig plays Kelly, who really wasn't that into David, but convinced him to take a fortune from Loomis Fargo in the fall of '97. The gang made numerous mistakes. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. Website. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. I studied up on the FBI. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. I dont know if Steve would have done it himself, but he definitely was capable of buying someone to do it for him and I think that was going to happen if we didnt step in and arrest Ghantt, Wydra said.