"I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. We got this guy named Bruno. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. . Its everything thats coming north.. David complained it wasn't enough. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. Exciting. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. "You" has three. He quickly found out when you have money, you just have different problems, Wydra said. . 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. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. . Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. She laughed for like 45 minutes. . Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. Informacin sobre tu dispositivo y conexin a Internet, como tu direccin IP, Actividad de navegacin y bsqueda al utilizar sitios web y aplicaciones de Yahoo. Search by Name Search . The money was heavy. Things were spiraling fast. . That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. 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. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. And robbing a truck was dangerous. They didnt expect it.. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. She will never get beyond the debt. Al hacer clic en Aceptar todo, aceptas que Yahoo y nuestros socios procesarn tu informacin personal y utilizarn tecnologas como cookies para presentarte anuncios y contenido personalizados, evaluar anuncios y contenido, obtener datos clave sobre la audiencia y desarrollar productos. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' October was "a blast," he said. 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. Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. . But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. "He was speechless," said Sandra Floyd. This robbery is the largest cash robbery on U.S. soil. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' He went deep-sea fishing. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. Thats one of my personality flaws. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. She was a wife and mother with two children. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 30, 2016 |. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. The FBI continues to search for a missing $2 million from the theft. They put up mauve wallpaper. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. "But I had to know.". Kelly's company. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. . The robbers went on a huge spending spree, buying a massive home, artworks, big-screen TVs, expensive cars, pickup trucks, minivans, two boats, six motorcycles and several tanning beds. I'd probably change jobs. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily . He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. He couldn't talk.". A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. 2023 Cox Media Group. 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. I was burned out and just didn't know it. 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. Director Jared Hess Writers Chris Bowman (screenplay) Hubbel Palmer (screenplay) Emily Spivey (screenplay) Stars Zach Galifianakis Kristen Wiig Owen Wilson Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. 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. Kelly called David at. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. Him and I still talk every now and then. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. In the first heist, a regional vault supervisor loaded money into a branded truck and . "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. And youre like, Come on parachute. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. It just happened to fall on my desk.. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. 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. Puedes cambiar tus opciones en cualquier momento desde tus controles de privacidad. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. 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. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. You can seize property. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. 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. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. 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. I hear her typing. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. 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. It changes you. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. 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. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. But what did that mean? I didn't think I had the guts. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. ". 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. Campbell was another employee at Loomis Fargo and she and Ghantt quickly struck up a relationship, one that Campbell denies was ever romantic though FBI evidence says otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. 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. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . 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. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. 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. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. The next day Chambers, Campbell and few other conspirators were arrested as well. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. This time, David told McKinney the truth. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. 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. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. Theyre meant to be trailer-park trash, but they come off as character experiments on a bad night at the Groundlings. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Hed be in contact. 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. Was the temptation too much? Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. The modern company was formed in 1997 by the consolidation of two armoured security concerns, Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc. Their international network covers over 200 operating locations in the US and eleven western European countries. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. 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 covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Her case closes in 2025. He flew in an ultra-light plane. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. Access to this system is reviewed and violators will be subject to prosecution. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. Theres no management around. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. Twenty-one people were charged and convicted in the robbery, one of the biggest heists in U.S. history. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Future together her he 'd need help moving the money, he told the agents worked in... And an FBI agent were watching him a choice made by a different man serious trouble this! A heavy equipment rental agency de privacidad cars to move large amounts of.. Was speechless, '' she says she told him large amounts of cash knew where he works at a equipment! 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