He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. She could visit friends. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. Nosotros, Yahoo, somos parte de la familia de marcas de Yahoo. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. 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. Where was Ghantt? Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. 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,. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? But in November, money ran low. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. "I thought he was goofing around.". Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. 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. I hear her typing. ", "Even then . I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. Kelly Loomis. . Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. Masterminds which opens nationwide today (though youd be hard pressed to know that given the decided lack of promotion) is proof again that all the talent in the world cannot salvage a bad script, and not even a good screenwriter can make up for terrible performances. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? 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. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Mine did. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. . Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. 145 Matches for Kelly Loomis. . David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. 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. Theres less security. You can seize property. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. 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. Still, she wasn't happy. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. "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. Username. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. . . There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. 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. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. He kept looking over his shoulder. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. Even the outtakes during the credits are bad. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. I missed my wife. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. Name. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. 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. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. He flew in an ultra-light plane. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. 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 reason Ghantt got involved was always the . 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.. 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. Steve now needed a hit man. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. 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. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what they'd talked about that day in the break room. . Or that it was an inheritance. Para obtener ms informacin sobre cmo utilizamos tus datos, consulta nuestra Poltica de privacidad y la Poltica de cookies. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. But as he later recalled to the media, as soon as he stepped through those big-box doors, he realized he was flush with cash, and he didnt need to shop at Walmart ever again. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. The figures can be astounding. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Exciting. Ghantt spent a solid hour moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an unmarked company van. Im a very deliberate person. his keys and wedding ring. He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. Kelly was lying. 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. Masterminds is an atrociously bad comedy, and absolutely everyone is to blame. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. Loomis, then known as Loomis Fargo, experienced two inside jobs in 1997, for $17.3 million and $18.8 million. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Campbell helped plot the robbery of Loomis Charlotte vault on Oct. 4, 1997, with David Ghantt, a Loomis supervisor who stole the money, and Steve Chambers, a longtime Campbell friend. Then another. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. They put up mauve wallpaper. Cool, I say. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. And so, he told her, Google my name. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. . 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