real life kelly campbell loomis fargo23 Apr real life kelly campbell loomis fargo
David quickly realized he was the intended victim. 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. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. Its hilarious. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Besides her prison sentence . Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. Ghantt:It's a comedy. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Not a documentary. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. Kelly's company. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. ", "Even then . ". Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. You can seize property. 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. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. She just called me up on the phone and said, Hey, lets meet one day after work. And then, we were talking and she says, How do you feel about robbing Loomis Fargo? Ghantt tells me. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. 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. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. I hear her typing. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. So I was glad it was over. Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." 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. "He was in tears. Her case closes in 2025. and "I'm rich!". Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. "For the first year, they're all over you. He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. All rights reserved. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. It changes you. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. . If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. The Columbia airport had no available flights. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Just head on out. And so, he did. . 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. She was a wife and mother with two children. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Theres less security. Steve led the planning. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. But what did that mean? Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. October was "a blast," he said. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. In real life: False. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. 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. . Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. Its everything thats coming north.. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? 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. . She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. "Think of how many women would have stood by. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. 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.". Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. 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) Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. But in November, money ran low. Military + Veterans. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Was that really what it was about? Some of that money is just gone. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. 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. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Where was Ghantt? It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. "I was unhappy with my life. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. You can garnish wages. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. They paid for all of it in cash. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Thats one of my personality flaws. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. Because surprise! LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. 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. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. 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. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. Things were spiraling fast. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Was Queen Charlotte Black? As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I wanted to get as far away as I could. No hard feelings. Its kind of like that. shes now Miss USA. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' I would call us friends. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. He didnt even really question me. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). 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. I loved it. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. 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 one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Mine did. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. . You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. 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. Posted on . . He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. . 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. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. 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. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. In real life: True. 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. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. 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. Its really just a matter of timing, more than anything. And she says, How much do you think wed get out of there? I said, Ten to 15 million. But I didnt really know.. 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. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? In real life: True. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. "I thought he was goofing around.". The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. 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. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. 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. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. >> 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,. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. By . He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. I wish them all a happy life and that's about 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.. Not Ghantt. What made her do it? "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. I was burned out and just didn't know it. She declined to take a lie-detector test. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". It affects everybody different. It was his goodbye. ", "I wouldn't do it. Explain? Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. "I work construction. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. 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. The money was heavy. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' Kelly was lying. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. David trusted her. . He couldn't talk.". About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. . He learned to parachute. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. I knew it was just a matter of time. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. She laughed for like 45 minutes. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. 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. 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. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. I've got a good woman.". "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. . I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. She also must . Exciting. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. Health savings account and flexible spending account. They put up mauve wallpaper. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Steve now needed a hit man. They stocked a wine cellar. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash.
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