loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. 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. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. Ghantt had struck up a relationship with a fellow Loomis Fargo employee, Kelly Campbell; they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when the heat was off, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. 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Marine Fisheries Commission advocates for water quality, North Carolina the only state allowing unnecessary killing of sea turtles, 'Pagan' bike gang leader in N. Carolina sentenced to prison, Deputy cleared in shooting death of Gloucester woman, Beaufort amends charter to allow four-year mayoral term. be blocked or permanently banned without warning. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. So they went to Mexico and arrested Ghantt in order to protect him. Over 88% of the money has been recovered since the heist. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. But if you did, youll never forget it. A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. Yet their lives seemed far easier and better than his. After discussing his job, his marriage, and his everyday struggles, they joked about Loomis and about how easy it would be to steal from the place. There are many robberies registered in the history of America, but the Loomis Fargo Robbery is known to be the second largest robbery in the United States. "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Friends of Campbell had also begun spending large amounts of cash. '. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. How he felt shorted by life. I dont know if Steve would have done it himself, but he definitely was capable of buying someone to do it for him and I think that was going to happen if we didnt step in and arrest Ghantt, Wydra said. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. David got a kick out of her. Most people are going to forgive you. 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. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. He hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. Winds light and variable. The Charlotte area's economy was booming all around him, and he felt passed over. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. They succeeded in removing $17 million from the safe. The figures can be astounding. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. She will never get beyond the debt. Heist! More calls between the two men, and also between Steve and Kelly Campbell, made it clear that the group was starting to turn on David Ghantt. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) Library Journal "highly entertaining." He would then have the bulk of his share sent south of the border. At 2:20 p.m., the phone rang; it was Kelly again. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. These cookies do not store any personal information. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. just generally being a jerk. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. 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. Perry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; and Eric Haley Payne.. Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.99. 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. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. 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. What it does is put a ball and chain on that person for the rest of their lives, they are walking around and they are basically an indentured servant, Gronquist said. People dont seem to understand human nature. He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing cubes of cash and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. 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Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. 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. Four-wheeling. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. 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. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. 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 plan was still on, but David remained steamed. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. Then they returned it. He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. Johnson had stolen $18.8 million earlier in the year, on March 19, 1997, only to be caught five months later, in late August, while crossing into Texas from Mexico to retrieve some of the money, which he'd hidden in a shed in mountainous western North Carolina. 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. You can seize property. David's vision for all of this actually derived more from books than from movies. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. 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. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" They had met in December 1995 on one of her first days at Loomis. Sure enough, she called a few days later, around September 16. He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. The gang made numerous mistakes. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. David and Kelly had driven to Rock Hill, South Carolina, and used the documents to obtain a fake ID that David would also rely on after the theft. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. The plan to. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. 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. It was 2:00 p.m. on October 4, 1997, and tension was building between two planners of what would rank high among the largest heists in United States history. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. They could talk about anything, even topics he couldn't discuss with his wife. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. 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 . He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. His eyes widened and he stopped breathing as he realized that something as mundane as a malfunctioning gate might ruin their entire plan. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Instead he became paranoid, especially after Steve Chambers put a contract out on his life. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. "Everything's gonna be all right," she told him. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. In the first couple of weeks, they had heard both Steve and Shelley bragging about their new-found fortune, and spending remarkable amounts of money. Of course, this would all be a radical departure for him, and thoughts of his wife and parents did give him pause. In the grand scheme of things, the prison sentence for stealing $20 million wouldn't be much worse than for stealing just $500,000 maybe a few extra years behind bars. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. On the evening ofOctober 4, 1997, the Loomis Fargo & Co branch in Charlotte, North Carolina was in the process of being plundered. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. 2023 Cox Media Group. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. It, too, has changed hands several times. The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. And once he started, he didn't stop with one cartful. The building was configured so vans could drive inside and pull up next to the vault. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Enforcement of this policy is at the 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. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case.. 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. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. 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. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. Growing up, David's family went to Disney World, sent him to religious school, and shopped at places he couldn't afford as a self-supporting adult. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? He also stole both existing sets of vault keys and hurried into the manager's office, where three TV security screens and two VCRs were visible. You can garnish wages. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. Have a youtube channel or website similar? The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. The site features a collection of unexplained, strange and odd mysteries. And Kelly thought he was funny. Ms. Campbell worked at Loomis for 11 months, leaving in November 1996, according to court papers. Heist! He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Prosecutors say a vault. In David's eyes, Johnson's big mistake was that he did it alone. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. The plan was to exit through the building's electronic back gate, which consisted of horizontal metal plates that opened at the touch of a button. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. 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.. Sure to be in demand as the book has been made into a movie, Masterminds, to be released in August.Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR. So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. Booklist "Librariesshould consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel." His collection case closes in two years. Seven p.m. came and went, and so did 7:20. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. But he wasn't finished. You can seize property. Except for the kiss in the pickup truck a few weeks before the heist, Kelly had kept things platonic. 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. But things didnt quite work out that way. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. Unexplained Mysteries - owned by Aliens since 2011. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. He added that he would be able to send the trainee home at about 6:00 p.m. and would then need about an hour to load the money from carts, shelves, and the floor into a Loomis company van. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. This was several years before the advent of smartphones and the post-9/11 increase in federal surveillance of electronic communications, and public knowledge about this tracking was less widespread. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. About the worst he had done as a teenager was stealing a construction company's Porta-Jon with a friend, tying it to the back of a pickup truck, and driving around for about fifteen minutes. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. Temptation to do something that you think you normally wouldnt do can change a lot of minds when its that kind of cash, and thats what it was., (WATCH BELOW: VIDEO: The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later). Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. He had approached her inside the chain-link fence that surrounded the building and said with a flirty smile, "If you give me a cigarette, I'll be your friend. Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville is a popular destination. 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. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Some of that money is just gone. Conversations about stealing from the company weren't rare for Loomis employees. Thirty years! 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 theft at the time the second-largest cash robbery in U.S. history has been the brunt of mocking movies and books, mostly on how the thieves, who had little money to begin with, could not control their spending habits once they did. One number is working in Campbells favor. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. Stealing from Loomis Fargo could make him rich, if he got away with it. A former FBI agent 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. 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. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. High around 65F. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. 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. - 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 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. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. David knew this was important from having followed the recent news about a Florida man who had brazenly committed the biggest heist from an armored-car company in United States history, a loner named Philip Noel Johnson, who also had worked for Loomis. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather.