Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. I was burned out and just didn't know it. See all of the stories here. 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. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. Username. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. Kelly Loomis. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. Eric watched. Access to this system is reviewed and violators will be subject to prosecution. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. . Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. He goes, My name is Bruno. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. I didn't think I had the guts. "Think of how many women would have stood by. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. All rights reserved. . He learned to parachute. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. They cursed. ", "Even then . David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. But that only tells part of the story. 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. "You" has three. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt,. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. However, the fact that a man who formerly lived in a mobile home was lavishly spending money on a luxury home ($635,000 in cash), expensive cars, and a ring ($42,000 in cash) eventually made it easy to connect the dots. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. 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. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. I studied up on the FBI. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Its said the current owner now has it in storage in Phoenix, Arizona. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. Him and I still talk every now and then. I think if you remember some of her early photographic opportunities, shall we put it that way, she was sort of laughing, not seeming to take it seriously.. 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. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. Chambers got 11 years. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. 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. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. Kelly Campbell arrested 11) Finally, the FBI successfully tracked down Ghantt and arrested him at Playa del Carmen. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. 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. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. 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 FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. . I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. ". He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. 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. There were times when I drank really heavily.". By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. . David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. Masterminds is a 2016 American crime comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery in North Carolina. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. . 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. David thought about it. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. It was the first Saturday in October. The picture, which is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey, stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis . This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Search by Name Search . "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. 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 case resurfaced in the federal courts on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte posted a public reminder in the case file of Loomis defendant Kelly Campbell that she had fallen behind in her restitution. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. We got this guy named Bruno. 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 the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. They put up mauve wallpaper. www.loomis.com. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. Mine did. ", "I wouldn't do it. So the original gang was all totally shocked, Wydra said. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. She could spend time with her children and parents. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. Baltimore leaders have agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers, Four family members from Australia who were injured during a crash-landing of a sightseeing helicopter in December are suing a Las Vegas-based tour operator, Massachusetts Gov. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. ". Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. . CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. 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