hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? Hes very articulate. On the night of October 4, the plan went into action. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. He then proceeded to load about $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in $20 bills) into the back of a company van. The Dunbar Armored robbery is the largest cash robbery to have occurred in the United States. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, The So-Called Female Delusion Calculator Doesnt Add Up, I Wore Magnetic Underwear for a Week to See If It Would Give Me a Boner of Steel, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. Its kind of like that. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. I studied up on the FBI. Soon everyone would know about the arrests in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist. An FBI criminal investigation ultimately resulted in the arrest and conviction of eight people directly involved in the heist, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them, and the recovery of approximately 88% of the stolen money. Ron DeSantis has awarded $100 million for beach erosion projects and other restoration efforts in 16 coastal counties damaged by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, A Tennessee judge has ruled that video detailing the treatment of a death row inmate who cut off his penis while on suicide watch must be made public, An Indiana man faces felony charges after his diaper-clad 4-year-old son was seen pointing a loaded handgun at people outside their apartment. But of course, then they had to decorate that spectacular new space and so they spent tens of thousands of dollars on things like cigar store Indians, paintings of Elvis, and a bulldog dressed up like George Patton. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. In spite of Chambers assurance that the money was, you know, totally not illegally acquired, the teller remained suspicious, especially because the stacks of cash still had Loomis Fargo wrappers on them. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. It happened on October 4, a Saturday. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. 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. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com, allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. 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. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. 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. You can read more at, Dilworth Coffee is coming to the Fifth Third Center. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report There was one problem: he forgot to remove the tape from the third security camera. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. I didnt pick the heist team. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. 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. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. 6 Is Kelly Campbell married to ghantt? WebFILE - 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 In February 2009 the Associated Press reported that Chambers had chosen to describe himself as "changed". In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Chambers and his wife also made some cash payments on a few cars. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. 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 really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. The Loomis Fargo heist became something of a media lightning rod. When Ghantt called Chambers to have the latter wire him more money, Chambers sent just a few thousand dollars. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 02:50. Product details Publisher : John F Blair Pub (October 1, 2005) 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. [1], This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Philip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.[2]. He completed his prison sentence in November 2006. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. It changes you. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Ridicule of those involved in what remains one of the largest cash thefts in U.S. history would soon begin. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? Ghantts accomplices soon showed up but now they had another problem. 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. Their combined salaries were less than $42,000. 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. 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. WebAydin Properties > Uncategorized > real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. But it wasnt. 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. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the groups demise. If I could get far enough away in a very short amount of time, my odds of getting away with it were pretty high, Ghantt said. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the second biggest cash heist in U.S. history, fleeing with more than $17 million in untraceable bills in 1997. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. 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. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. 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. 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. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. ), and having explosive diarrhea in a public swimming pool (who knew Zach Galifianakis was filled with caramel syrup?). After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. WebSteven Chambers [Misc. That was great. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. The theft at the time the second-largest cash robbery in U.S. history has been the brunt of mocking movies and books, mostly on how the thieves, who had little money to begin with, could not control their spending habits once they did. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. At 6:40 p.m., he headed to his car along with three other employees before returning to the depository, where hed propped open the door. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. He stayed at a luxury hotel and took scuba diving lesson. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. With the plan in place, Ghantt sent a newly employed co-worker home early (reportedly at 6 p.m) who had been assigned to train with him. 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. 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.. 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LCR9zyGkbo. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. Items included a velvet Elvis painting, 1998 BMW, 17-foot motorboat and Harley Davidson. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. [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. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Axios Charlotte is a local news initiative. His new life in Mexico had begun. Officials suspected that the extravagant purchases stemmed from the fact that all involved got far more money than they anticipated and literally didnt know how to spend or get rid of it, which is perhaps backed up by the fact that Chambers wife once walked into a Belmont Wachovia with $200,000 in a briefcase wanting to know how much she could deposit without the bank reporting it to officials. Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. 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. 4 What is the largest armored car robbery? He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. 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.. Him and I still talk every now and then. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. WebLoomis Fargo Robbery There is a vault reserved for only the most outrageous, preposterous, and far-fetched real life stories. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. Thirteen friends and family members were also charged with money laundering, as they had helped Ghantt, Chambers, Campbell, and the others deposit money illegally. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. WebGhantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. One number is working in Campbells favor. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! In total, 24 people were convicted. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. The first is that this was the same year, 1997, that the largest cash robbery in history took place within the same company. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. A Comprehensive Guide. But before thehit could be carried out, the FBI swooped in and arrested Ghantt and the others. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. First, Chambers and his wife each deposited $5,000 into each of their bank accounts. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. Eventually, Ghantt would return to the United States and the full sum would be split up between the conspirators. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Chambers, his wife, and several of their accomplices were arrested the next day. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. I was just going to get the money into the van. They called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. 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