), and having explosive diarrhea in a public swimming pool (who knew Zach Galifianakis was filled with caramel syrup?). real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. It was over. 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. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. On October 6, they found the van with everything that Chambers had left behind, including Ghanttsgun and a clear picture of his face on video, which was identified by supervisors. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. 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. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. 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. And youre like, Come on parachute. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Ghantt, meanwhile, had spent most of his money at a resort in Cancun, where he was being told he looked a lot like the guy that stole $20 million from a bank. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Instead, the bandits just started throwing as much money as they could into the van until they couldnt fit anymore. Cool, I say. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, though he was released on parole after five. Bank name Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997, by vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steve Chambers, his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies and four other co-conspirators. Chambers and two accomplices, making their way to Vale in order to put the barrels in his home, left behind the staggering $3.3 million that didnt fit and the two security tapes in the Loomis Fargo van that Ghantt had driven. 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. More than 2 million dollars is still missing to this day. If you can see the obvious flaw in this plan, namely that Chambers would have no reason whatsoever to actually wire Ghantt any money, then congratulations. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. But even though he worked for a company that regularly moved millions of dollars, David Ghantt himself was underpaid. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. 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. 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.. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. 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. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. WebThis real-life . Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. [citation needed], It was later confirmed by the FBI that more than 88% of the stolen cash had been located or otherwise accounted for. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. The reason Ghantt got involved wasalways the same: he realized that he couldnt make his credit card payments, and was thus unable to support his family. Web>> 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 October 26, 1999. And so this third camera caught everything that happened next. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. More than 95% of the cash that stolen was accounted for. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points, How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer, Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Ten days later, the group was indicted for bank larceny and money laundering. WebCampbell 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 As you probably know, its loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. 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, Phillip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.October 1997 Loomis Its everything thats coming north.. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the Outside the building, Ghantt met up with Campbell, Chambers, and others who were involved in the plot, and drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Ghantt was caught on videotape loading large amounts of cash into a truck. The next day, Steve and Michelle Chambers, Kelly Campbell, and four others were arrested.[6]. WebCampbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. For a time, it was nicknamed "the hillbilly heist" because nearly all of the major players in the case came from small towns around Charlotte. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. [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]. Things were spiraling fast. The connection to Chambers took more time. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. They lived lavishly: Mastermind Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) moved from a mobile home to a large home in a gated community, paid for in cash alerting authorities. hilary farr design assistant 9, Juin, 2022 Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. 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. The details of the heist itself, coupled with the missteps the crew made after stealing the money, attracted the attention of writers and movie producers. In addition to his phone calls with Ghantt, Chambers began extravagantly spending the money, even though the co-conspirators had agreed to lay low for a year or two. I didnt pick the heist team. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. And thats OK with Ghantt, whos 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. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. 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. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Im a very deliberate person. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. David Ghantt was portrayed by Zackary Hatfield. 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.. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the heist of the century, was by far the largest diamond heist.Antwerp diamond heist. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! First, Chambers and his wife each deposited $5,000 into each of their bank accounts. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the robbery and then quickly leave the country for Mexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. Loomis Fargo employee David Ghantt and his partners nearly pulled off the perfect crime, but it would be their lavish spending, and an alleged murder plot, that would be their undoing. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Eventually, Ghantt called in from Mexico, seeking more money, and the FBI officially recognized Chambers as a co-conspirator. He was like OK, yeah, we can do that, she recalled. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Thirteen friends and family members were also charged with money laundering, as they had helped Ghantt, Chambers, Campbell, and the others deposit money illegally. WebLoomis Fargo Robbery There is a vault reserved for only the most outrageous, preposterous, and far-fetched real life stories. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. That was great. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. A couple weeks pass, and far-fetched real life stories struck up a few translation books, Ghantt and other! Most of the day, and she was real cool about it and overlooked,! 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