Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. 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,. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. 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 soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. But if you did, youll never forget it. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what they'd talked about that day in the break room. David thought about it. "For the first year, they're all over you. Her case closes in 2025. They bought a BMW roadster. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Not Ghantt. 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. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. ". 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. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. 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. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. I didn't think I had the guts. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. You can garnish wages. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. She declined to take a lie-detector test. In a word, "Teamwork. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. They decorated their 6,000-square-foot stucco house with antiques, paintings and statues, including a six-foot wooden Indian that Michele had bought for $600. I'd probably change jobs. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? . While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. What made her do it? About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. I was just going to get the money into the van. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. It premiered in Los Angeles on September 26, 2016 and was theatrically released in the . The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. . Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. 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. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Sweat soaked David's uniform. Kelly called David at. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. "I missed my family. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. 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. Kelly was lying. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. 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. In the first heist, a regional vault supervisor loaded money into a branded truck and . But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Maura Healey unveiled a proposed $55.5 billion state budget Wednesday, a plan that offers insight into some of the Democrats spending priorities during her first year as governor. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. It was late in 1996. 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. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. One of them tapped him on the back. * I understand and. The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. Exciting. ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Search Tools . "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". And so, he told her, Google my name. Steven Chambers and David Ghantt (back) arrested 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Campbell and her husband had always been just scraping by, however in the weeks following the robbery, the two seemed to have more money than they've ever had. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. 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. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Then another. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. 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. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Then another. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. That was great. The figures can be astounding. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. 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. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. 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 reason Ghantt got involved was always the . You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. 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. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. 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. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". 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. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to North Carolina. 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. ", "Even then . "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. Money. Search by Name Search . ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. Theyre meant to be trailer-park trash, but they come off as character experiments on a bad night at the Groundlings. . 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. He didnt even really question me. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. 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. 2023 Cox Media Group. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. But being the vault supervisor at Loomis Fargo had one perk -- exposure to tons of cash. About 200 keys dangled from it. But things didnt quite work out that way. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. and "I'm rich!". October was "a blast," he said. Loomis (formerly Loomis, Fargo & Co.) is a cash handling company. 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. This robbery is the largest cash robbery on U.S. soil. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. 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.. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. 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