', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. 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. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. "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. 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. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. You might as well go all the way now.". They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. The Chambers home is now gated, which means Channel 9 crews cant drive up to it like we used to. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. 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. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. Theres less security. Was that really what it was about? You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. More agents waited outside to arrest them. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. You can garnish wages. 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. So the original gang was all totally shocked, Wydra said. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Warning! He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. Mine did. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. 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. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. 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. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. To its credit, Masterminds does nail down the broad strokes of the real story, although there were a couple of noteworthy details the film left out. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. But that only tells part of the story. I hear her typing. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. Kelly called David at. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. He kept looking over his shoulder. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Is he telling the truth? 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.. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Here, he amps up the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. 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. You're an idiot.'". Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. The pager entry was 1-4-3. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Its everything thats coming north.. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. . ". Thats one of my personality flaws. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. www.loomis.com. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. . Hed be in contact. 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. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. The van door opened. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. This is the person I counted as my friend. It is based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina, which was the subject of the 2016 American comedy film Masterminds. 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. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. "So he stays behind and moving over two thousand pounds. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. This time, David told McKinney the truth. Kelly Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced in October. and "I'm rich!". Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. But things didnt quite work out that way. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. Sweat soaked David's uniform. It changes you. ". Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. 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. 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. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. 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