The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. There's just one hitch: Ghantt has entrusted the money to an oddball crew of accomplices who had wooed him into committing this massive theft in the first placeand who, he soon learns, are trying to take him out. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. They had met in December 1995 on one of her first days at Loomis. Living with his wife, Tammy, in a mobile home, he had longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood that had come to seem luxurious, a pipe dream for him now. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. 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.. When they hung up, she called his pager and left the code 1-4-3, beeper-speak for "I love you," based on the number of letters in each word. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. Was the temptation too much? be blocked or permanently banned without warning. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. The property has changed hands several times since then. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. Heist! https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . 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. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Its in the ether. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Four-wheeling. Im married, I got one girl, shes 15 going on 30. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. 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. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. Outside of 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. The FBI was inadvertently aided by the gang members extravagant spending. Another time, the day after a Christmas in the late 1980s, David and some friends planted all the discarded Christmas trees from the area in one neighbor's front yard. 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. Former FBI agent John Wydra, who helped crack the case, sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Steve's a serious guy.". The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. 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 theyve ever had. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. And Kelly thought he was funny. But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. 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. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. Thank you! 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. The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. That was taking the long view. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. He could even be famous, perhaps joining the ranks of legendary master thieves. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. 2023 Cox Media Group. Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. You can seize property. 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. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing. The movie was called Masterminds and stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). The corporation handled armored transportation, ATM maintenance and other cash handling services, and had millions of currency stashed in the vault of the North Carolina branch. He realized his life wouldn't improve unless he did something drastic. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. 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. A more immediate need was securing help to move the stolen money to safety the night of the crime. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? 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. "Just think about it," she said. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. David was thin six-foot-one, one hundred sixty-five pounds and heaving the stacks onto the cart, pushing the cart toward the vault door, and then emptying its contents into the van was exhausting. There was a book published in 2002 as well, by author Jeff Diamant called,Heist! Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. 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. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. The gang made numerous mistakes. He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. 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. 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. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. '. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. In the parking lot, David sat in his pickup truck smoking a cigarette and waving good-bye as the trainee drove home. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. His collection case closes in two years. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! Its like, me and you sat down, I have access to pie, you like pie, all I want is my share of the pie. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. The world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. "Don't back out on us. Heist! Prosecutors say a vault. When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. 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. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. At 2:20 p.m., the phone rang; it was Kelly again. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. 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. 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, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. Who all wanted a Rambo movie which explored his time training as a green beret and his time serving in Vietnam as a prequel to first blood WATCH Antebellum 2020 FULL MOVIE. The Charlotte area's economy was booming all around him, and he felt passed over. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth., White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money,, Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with., She will never get beyond the debt. Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. He is a graduate of Yale and has worked for the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post. 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. In the end, the FBI was able to capture the original gang in five months, snaring 21 individuals for their participation in the crime. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. It was David who was hours away from committing the most daring act of his life, and she was going off about Steve being a serious guy? So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all., WSOC TV facebook feed(Opens a new window), Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago, ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east Charlotte, mom says, ALSO READ: Leader of $3M check theft, bank fraud scheme in Charlotte area sentenced to prison, ALSO READ: Man released from jail, accused of robbing banks while wearing electronic monitor, police say, ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says, NCSHP arrest driver accused of nearly hitting 2 students at bus stop in Statesville, CMS delays opening of new school meant to ease overcrowding, Mooresville orders removal of memorial at park after teens death, Chick-fil-A announces app data breach, tells customers how to protect personal information, Charlotte woman celebrates $1 million scratch-off prize, WSOC - TV Public File Contact / Program Director, WAXN - TV Public File Contact / Program Director. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. Though much of the cash was already stacked on pushcarts in the vault, other stacks were on shelves or the floor, and they were heavy. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. In the movie: Campbell invites Ghantt to a restaurant under the auspices of a date, but then springs the idea of the heist on him, as Chambers and two associates join the conversation from an . Diamant, a journalist who reported on the case at the time, goes into meticulous detail on how the heist was pulled off and its aftermath. It's still the hot topic . In fact, he had recently finished a book about the FBI and felt it provided insight into the agency's investigative techniques, insight he thought could help the little gang succeed. David's vision for all of this actually derived more from books than from movies. But being the vault supervisor at Loomis Fargo had one perk -- exposure to tons of cash. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. 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. Spunk. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?.
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