Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. See all of the stories here. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. I missed my wife. . Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. Question: You went to Mexico. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. In real life: False. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. 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." Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. . Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with 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. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. 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. 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. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. . Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. He went deep-sea fishing. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. I hope everyone has moved on. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. And robbing a truck was dangerous. "I was unhappy with my life. ". There had been no signs. The pager entry was 1-4-3. . David trusted her. 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. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. By . Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. The name she gave the pup is apropos. Now two NC men face prison. Military + Veterans. 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. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. 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) They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. 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. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. 27 febrero, 2023 . Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Besides her prison sentence . 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. You can garnish wages. ", "I wouldn't do it. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. But in November, money ran low. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. 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 Mountain. Steve was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison. 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. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. I'd probably change jobs. At 7:45, David had finished loading. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. . 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. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. 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. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Were others involved? He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. No dry runs, no rehearsals. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. 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. Is he telling the truth? Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. But it wasnt. Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. 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. I don't blame him.". David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. 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. "Think of how many women would have stood by. shes now Miss USA. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. 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. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. 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. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Its hilarious. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift.
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