He flew in an ultra-light plane. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. . He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. ". The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. ". This time, David told McKinney the truth. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. Cool, I say. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. . All rights reserved. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. 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. 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. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Dental plans . 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. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. "It probably should bother me," he said. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. The cash was covered with dog food. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. More agents waited outside to arrest them. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. "I thought he was goofing around.". Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. And going to see the Mayan ruins. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. "You" has three. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. And after two years, you're just a file." Thats one of my personality flaws. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. 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 Mountain. 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. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. 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 . He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. In real life: True. And youre like, Come on parachute. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. 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. (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. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. She also must . I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. Ghantt went on to explain that he left for his flight to Mexico with about $25,000, and that two or three deliveries of extra money was made to him by the man Chambers would pay to kill him. 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. Once in a lifetime, Murdaugh verdict sends a Lowcountry message: No one is above the law | Opinion, Charlotte Waffle House found with live roach, unclean equipment during health inspection. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. Or that it was an inheritance. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". 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. Now two NC men face prison. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. "I was unhappy with my life. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? >> 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,. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. . ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. . ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. In real life: Yes and no. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. 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 Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. . 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. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. In real life: True. 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. 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. Explain? Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. They cursed. He goes, My name is Bruno. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. In real life: False. So I guess I have no regrets. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. . In real life: False. There was, however, one problem with his plan. 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. In real life: False. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Posted on . Im a very deliberate person. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Was that really what it was about? The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. 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.. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. It was his goodbye. Him and I still talk every now and then. His collection case closes in two years. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. 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. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. I'd probably change jobs. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. They sweated, though the night was cool. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job?