real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist

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. 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. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Ghantt was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. Bank name Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997, by vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steve Chambers, his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies and four other co-conspirators. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. Within two days, the investigators found the van with $3 million in cash and the security camera tapes inside. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. [7][8], Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants. To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. Exciting. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey, the film stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Jason Sudeikis. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. He was also married. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. 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. Ask below and we'll reply! Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. 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. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Its kind of like that. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. In 1997, six men pulled off what remains the biggest cash heist in the history of the United States. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. You know Loomis because of their armored cash vehicles, and when they acquired Wells Fargo Armored, turned into Loomis, Fargo & Co. Ghantt, who had been with the bank since 1994, was promoted from driver to vault supervisor in 1997, where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt mixed up in the plans for the heist after she left Loomis. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. We got this guy named Bruno. Hes well thought-out. So I was glad it was over. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Hello, federal suspicious activity report. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. Hed be in contact. 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. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. 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. Websacramento drug bust; montage los cabos wedding cost. You can read more at, Dilworth Coffee is coming to the Fifth Third Center. According to local author David Aaron Moore, the plan went like this: Ghantt would go to work as normal, leave at the same time as the last employee and return to the vault, where he would load carts with bags of money before puttingthem into a van. WebLoomis Fargo Robbery There is a vault reserved for only the most outrageous, preposterous, and far-fetched real life stories. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. Then check out another bank robber who inspired a movie, John Wojtowicz. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. 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 CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. 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. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. It affects everybody different. He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. 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. 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. Join the 119,947 smart Charlotteans that receive our daily newsletter. Chambers also promised to join Ghantt in Mexico as soon as she could, but she admitted to Super Heists she never had any intention of actually making the trip. Before he left, he went into his managers office and removed tapes from two of the security cameras. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. Things were spiraling fast. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. 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.. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. 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 Campbell was receptive and brought the idea up to Ghantt. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. An inept hitman was sent to kill David Ghantt. 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.. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. The figures can be astounding. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Galifianakis is game for anything, including eating a dead tarantula (who knew tarantulas were filled with caramel syrup? You see, theres a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. The police then called the FBI because most of the money handled at the facility belonged to banks, which technically made it a bank robbery a federal offense.[5]. His new life in Mexico had begun. [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. Axios Charlotte is a local news initiative. But even though he worked for a company that regularly moved millions of dollars, David Ghantt himself was underpaid. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. Investigators also found Ghantt's pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. Campbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and into another van. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". On October 6, they found the van with everything that Chambers had left behind, including Ghanttsgun and a clear picture of his face on video, which was identified by supervisors. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. On March 1, 1988, Mexican police arrested Ghantt at Playa del Carmen. Eventually, Ghantt called in from Mexico, seeking more money, and the FBI officially recognized Chambers as a co-conspirator. Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. He didnt even really question me. The film was produced by Brent Almond. Chambers got 11 years. WebSteven Chambers [Misc. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. 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. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. The next day, Steve and Michelle Chambers, Kelly Campbell, and four others were arrested.[6]. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Him and I still talk every now and then. 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. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. And youre like, Come on parachute. 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. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. Theres less security. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off [citation needed], It was later confirmed by the FBI that more than 88% of the stolen cash had been located or otherwise accounted for. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when "the heat was off," Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. 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. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. In the film, Jason Sudeikis plays a sadistic assassin hired to knock off Ghantt, who befriends him. I was working sometimes 75-80 hrs a week for $8.15 an hour, I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there I was working all the time and unhappy which is understandable considering how old I was at the time. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Of course, I went on a spending spree. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. 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. ), and having explosive diarrhea in a public swimming pool (who knew Zach Galifianakis was filled with caramel syrup?). I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Having only brought $50,000 in cash, however, Ghantt soon found himself short on funds. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. David Ghantt was a technical consultant for the film, but due to outstanding court-ordered restitution for his part in the heist he was not paid. The other, suggested bythen-Observer reporter Jeff Diamant, says that Campbell created the plan with Steve Chambers,a drug dealer who was facing charges for writing $30,000 worth of bad checks, and later got Ghantt involved. And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. 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.. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. 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. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. I was working sometimes 75-80 hours a week at $8.15 an hour. 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. The return of the Mack they could carry into a van a van tell him where to meet.... Left behind the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and instead, you see what got. His ability to balance his books Hack 's Guide to history 's Fiercest Females 20,. Real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to.. Fbi quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee took $ 18 from. To find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices looking to bust a of. 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