real life kelly campbell loomis fargo

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. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. And after two years, you're just a file." He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. 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. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and In real life: False. I wanted to get as far away as I could. 27 febrero, 2023 . Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. . Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. I've got a good woman.". There it was, "The Heist." Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". I can take it.". I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. "Think of how many women would have stood by. At that same time, Steve was growing sick of the calls to send more money to Ghantt, and was looking for a way to end that issue. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. That was great. Or that it was an inheritance. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Mine did. They sweated, though the night was cool. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' 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. "Love" has four. You have to remember that it's Hollywood and they'll take what was a minor event and they'll blow it up and make it as funny as they can.". He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. 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. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. She was a wife and mother with two children. Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. Steve led the planning. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. Loomis - Home She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. No hard feelings. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Were others involved? As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. 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. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. 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. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. ". But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. In a word, "Teamwork. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. 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.. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. I knew it was just a matter of time. "He was in tears. About 200 keys dangled from it. Still, she wasn't happy. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Then another. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Because surprise! Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. We got this guy named Bruno. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. The real 'Masterminds' Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. In real life: False. She will never get beyond the debt. ". Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. His name was Corey. Kelly drove David to the airport. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. There had been no signs. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. In real life: False. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. 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. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). They put up mauve wallpaper. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' In real life: False. Was Queen Charlotte Black? Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie 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. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record On Oct. 7, 1997, two FBI agents arrived at Kelly Campbell's home after two Loomis employees had told agents she and David had once dated. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. All I needed was a change of pace.". The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. All rights reserved. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. 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. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Question: Should people go see this movie? Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. I would call us friends. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. . In real life: True. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". "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. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. 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) On October 5, 1997, FBI agents gathered at the Loomis, Fargo & Co. warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, to watch a security videotape of a man loading stacks of cash into a pushcart and wheeling them from the vault. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Health savings account and flexible spending account. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. Careers. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. I didnt pick the heist team. There was, however, one problem with his plan. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. 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 and happy. She also must . In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. . And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Why fans love it. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Hes very articulate. They cursed. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Then another. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. Steve tried keys on a side door. 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. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? 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. 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. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. Steve now needed a hit man. Steven Chambers [Misc. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. His new life in Mexico had begun. 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. "I" has one letter. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. 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. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. 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. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. ", "Even then . 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), Police: Officer Who Shot Black Man Retired 'In Bad Standing', 3 Kansas City Officers Who Were Shot Released From Hospital, 1 Killed When Business Jet Encounters Severe Turbulence. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. 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. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. 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. 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.. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. They stocked a wine cellar. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4,. It was late in 1996. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. Hed be in contact. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". 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. and "I love money!" As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. 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. Police Chase San Diego Live, Articles R