Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' 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. Theres no management around. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. She will never get beyond the debt. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? 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. That was the most painful truth to come to. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. He told him McKinney was in Mexico to kill somebody. Question: You went to Mexico. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Dependent care account. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? The name she gave the pup is apropos. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. 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. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? This real-life crime is the core of "Untitled Armored Car Project," which stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Dental plans . Did you get paid? . 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. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. Looking for Kelly Loomis? shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) Then another. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. She declined to take a lie-detector test. That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Still, she wasn't happy. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. . I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Question: Should people go see this movie? real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. 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. No dry runs, no rehearsals. I studied up on the FBI. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. You might as well go all the way now.". He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. 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. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. I loved it. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. 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. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. That time in prison was actually good for me. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. ". The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. "I work construction. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? 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. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. 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. I mentioned it to Kelly. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. They put up mauve wallpaper. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. No regrets. ". Kelly called David at. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. 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. And so, he told her, Google my name. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. All rights reserved. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. 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. I don't blame him.". Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. His new life in Mexico had begun. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. 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) 27 febrero, 2023 . . Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. "I missed my family. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. 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. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. 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. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. 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. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. About 200 keys dangled from it. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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 . . Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. I hear her typing. David had grabbed $50,000 cash, but could figure out only how to carry $25,000 with him on the plane. 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. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Things were spiraling fast. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. Its hilarious. And going to see the Mayan ruins. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. Hes well thought-out. 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. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. Because surprise! real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist seeing a woodpecker after someone dies lectomano que significa. "I" has one letter. 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. In a word, "Teamwork. Ghantt would go on to spend six and a half years in federal prison. So I guess I have no regrets. shes now Miss USA. 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. Just head on out. And so, he did. 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..