In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly said. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. I was burned out and just didn't know it. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. I didn't think I had the guts. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. A version of this story originally appeared on CharlotteObserver.com. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. On October 5, 1997, FBI agents gathered at the Loomis, Fargo & Co. warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, to watch a security videotape of a man loading stacks of cash into a pushcart and wheeling them from the vault. In real life: False. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. 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. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. 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 drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. 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. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Her case closes in 2025. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. Alert: Obviously, spoilers abound. David complained it wasn't enough. Kelly's company. So I guess I have no regrets. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Just head on out. And so, he did. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. 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. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. . As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. . I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Military + Veterans. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. I was just going to get the money into the van. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Cool, I say. There it was, "The Heist." "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. . Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. 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. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. 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. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? They stocked a wine cellar. She could spend time with her children and parents. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. "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. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. 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. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. 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. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. "I missed my family. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Where was Ghantt? Mine did. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. How Bridgerton restarted buzz about her ancestry. This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. 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. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. 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. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . 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. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. I don't blame him.". To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Thats one of my personality flaws. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping.
[email protected] 0:04 0:57 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. ". Question: You were a consultant? But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. She laughed for like 45 minutes. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. It changes you. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. He didnt even really question me. Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. 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. She could visit friends. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. He flew in an ultra-light plane. 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.". Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Question: Should people go see this movie? That was great. 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. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? About 200 keys dangled from it. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. Exciting. The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . In real life: False. 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.. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. That time in prison was actually good for me. "I" has one letter. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. 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. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. 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. 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. I think I always knew that, but lost my way for a while.". A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. . Some of that money is just gone. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. The cash was covered with dog food. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997, 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. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. I mentioned it to Kelly. There had been no signs. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. They decorated their 6,000-square-foot stucco house with antiques, paintings and statues, including a six-foot wooden Indian that Michele had bought for $600. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. . David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. 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. . Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Question: You went to Mexico. Scary. Because surprise! "I thought he was goofing around.". David didn't even know Steve's name. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. He went deep-sea fishing. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. 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. His collection case closes in two years. He kept looking over his shoulder. 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. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Did you get paid? Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. . Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. This time, David told McKinney the truth. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. 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. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. 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: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. Theres less security. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. Field Operations; Corporate; Why Loomis. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. 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. There were times when I drank really heavily.". The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. Kelly drove David to the airport. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. And so, he told her, Google my name. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Steven Chambers [Misc. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. 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. Kelly called David at. The pager entry was 1-4-3. Question: What made you, Chambers and the others think you could get away with this? 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.. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. In real life: Mostly true. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. I hope everyone has moved on. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. It was late in 1996. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Yes, happy. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. 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." He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. What made her do it? . Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat.
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