Kelly was no criminal. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. Our Benefits. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. "I was unhappy with my life. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. You might as well go all the way now.". I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Him and I still talk every now and then. I don't blame him.". Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. ". Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. I knew it was just a matter of time. . 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. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. 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. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. ". And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? Everybody seemed stunned. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. I missed my wife. One of them tapped him on the back. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. 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. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Michele received the best gift of the night. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. By . Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". It was the first Saturday in October. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. It was his goodbye. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. His name was Corey. Steven Chambers [Misc. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. 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. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. You're an idiot.'". Theres less security. 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. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). Steve led the planning. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? 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. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's 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 . Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. That time in prison was actually good for me. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. In real life: False. There was, however, one problem with his plan. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. And robbing a truck was dangerous. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. All rights reserved. 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. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. and "I'm rich!". Why fans love it. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. 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. Its everything thats coming north.. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. Where was Ghantt? 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. You've violated that trust. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. David complained it wasn't enough. 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. He kept looking over his shoulder. 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.. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. Scary. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. 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. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. I mentioned it to Kelly. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. 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. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? So I was glad it was over. . Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. October was "a blast," he said. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Posted on . . real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. There was in fact a basically similar conversation involving Chambers and Campbell that took place during a barbecue the Campbells were hosting. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. 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.

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