Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. In addition to their extravagant spending, Michelle Chambers made the mistake of loudly asking a bank teller how much cash she could deposit in her account without it being reported to the feds, and then said, its not drug money.. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Most people are going to forgive you. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. 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. In preparation for what lay ahead, David had backed an unmarked company Ford Econoline van near the vault entrance and opened the van's back door. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. 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. 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Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. He added that he would be able to send the trainee home at about 6:00 p.m. and would then need about an hour to load the money from carts, shelves, and the floor into a Loomis company van. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. The police almost immediately called theFBI, since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. 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 . Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. The site features a collection of unexplained, strange and odd mysteries. David's vision for all of this actually derived more from books than from movies. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. The reason David didn't know Steve's last name was so they couldn't identify each other to the police or FBI, should cops or G-men ever enter the picture. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. CHARLOTTE (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. And Kelly thought he was funny. If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. Ghantt had struck up a relationship with a fellow Loomis Fargo employee, Kelly Campbell; they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. He is a graduate of Yale and has worked for the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Later, they also arrested Nathans older brother. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. 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. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. 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. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. she asked again. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. (LogOut/ 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. The supervisor liked him and gave him the job. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. If we can sit on the money for a year, maybe two, it could work.". Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. This was several years before the advent of smartphones and the post-9/11 increase in federal surveillance of electronic communications, and public knowledge about this tracking was less widespread. 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. "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. 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. Her case closes in 2025. They had to be extremely careful not to tip off the group, as they could lose potential conspirators or more information important to a conviction. My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the actual robbery and then quickly leave the country forMexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. He has been a staff writer for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey since 2000. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. 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. I actually loved reading through this post. You Save 23%. Steve had hired a bodyguard named Mike McKinney. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Holding 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 & Co. She was also. He had since served time in prison for the crime and told our sister station WSOC-TV Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. 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,. just generally being a jerk. RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. '. Its in the ether. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. He hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. When did you conclude Yeah, Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. But if you did, youll never forget it. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. One number is working in Campbells favor. (LogOut/ He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember why you were elected! You can seize property. Who was she to be pressuring him? : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. 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. The figures can be astounding. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. "its a great readsuspenseful, often funny, just the thing for those wondering what it might feel like to have, as these hapless, small-town criminals did, literally too darn much cash lying around. " The phone calls began to get more intense when Steve and Eric got suspicious of a man who was running hismouth about them and the vault job over in Charlotte. Then they returned it. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. 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. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. Asked the purpose of his visit, Johnson had replied, "To visit friends. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. You can garnish wages. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. Ms. Campbell worked at Loomis for 11 months, leaving in November 1996, according to court papers. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs., Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it,, You can garnish wages. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. "Are you serious?" Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. Heist! Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. NASCAR. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing 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. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Getting that off his chest calmed him some, and the conversation returned to the plan. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Before the robber left Loomis Fargo, he made a trip to the managers office to remove two surveillance tapes in order to conceal his identity. "Everything's gonna be all right," she told him. personal/abusive/condescending attacks on other users or goading And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. To visit friends.". Winds light and variable. Afterward, everything became comical. Kelly had approached David with the idea in the summer, knowing he had a crush on her and winning him over with the promise that a shady friend of hers with Mafia ties would help them. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. - Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. David didn't appreciate her tone. Some of that money is just gone. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. About the worst he had done as a teenager was stealing a construction company's Porta-Jon with a friend, tying it to the back of a pickup truck, and driving around for about fifteen minutes. "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for it. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. He also took various measures to change his appearance, such asshaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million.. The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. How he felt shorted by life. A couple by the names of Steve and Shelley Chambers also became people of interest in the investigation due to their extreme sudden increase in spending. Was the temptation too much? Growing up, David had been a nice kid, a decent student who was at worst a minor troublemaker and prankster. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. What it does is put a ball and chain on that person for the rest of their lives, they are walking around and they are basically an indentured servant, Gronquist said. The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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, former FBI agent John Wydra said. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. 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. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. He even had to watch what he bought at the grocery store. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. You can seize property. >> 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.. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Four-wheeling. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. He deserved better. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. Expanded two-hour true crime story about the 1997 Loomis-Fargo armored car heist in North Carolina and the serio-comic fate of its bumbling underdog perpetra. Change). You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Of course, this would all be a radical departure for him, and thoughts of his wife and parents did give him pause. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. David and the trainee left the warehouse. 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. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. 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. Steve was a serious guy? Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Instead he became paranoid, especially after Steve Chambers put a contract out on his life. Ghantt was working as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte in 1997, earning about $8 an hour and tired of his humdrum life. David knew this was important from having followed the recent news about a Florida man who had brazenly committed the biggest heist from an armored-car company in United States history, a loner named Philip Noel Johnson, who also had worked for Loomis. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. 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.

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