Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. He deserved better. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct.. 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 tried again to make the back gate rise, to no avail. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. she asked. In Reservoir Dogs, released just five years earlier, the pawns in a robbery knew each other only by assigned colors: Mr. 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. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. I appreciate your kind words! Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. 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. The van used to move the money was later located a few miles from the warehouse. The Chambers home is now gated, which means Channel 9 crews cant drive up to it like we used to. 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. Jim Gronquist was Campbells defense attorney. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. This technically made it abank robbery afederal offense. NASCAR. Heist! 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. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. Some of that money is just gone. 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.. Her case closes in 2025. The Loomis Fargo Heist Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. 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. But with Kelly's new idea on the table, several dark realities converged on him. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. 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. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. Winds light and variable. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. Ghantt said he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. Former Loomis employee David Scott Ghantt is accused of stealing the money. 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. 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. OWLS director fired in wake of new board taking over, New rules will require flood history disclosure in real estate, North Carolina recreational spring flounder season canceled for 2023, Supreme Court seems ready to sink student loan forgiveness, Beach commission gets update on search for new sources of sand for beach nourishment. And after two years, the case is just a file. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. How he and his wife had trouble communicating. 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. she asked again. 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. Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. Low 46F. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. In the end, the FBI was able to capture the original gang in five months, snaring 21 individuals for their participation in the crime. After marrying Tammy in 1992, he worked fueling airplanes at the airport in Hilton Head, South Carolina. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. Was the temptation too much? Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. 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. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. Of course the most famous thing inside the home was a velvet Elvis portrait. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. You can seize property. But after a year, they cut it down to two agents. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). The FBI was inadvertently aided by the gang members extravagant spending. So the original gang was all totally shocked, Wydra said. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . 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. We went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, former FBI agent John Wydra said. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. 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. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. Except for the kiss in the pickup truck a few weeks before the heist, Kelly had kept things platonic. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats 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. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case.. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. Its in the ether. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Twenty years ago this Wednesday, a small group of people stole $17 million in cash from the main vault of a Loomis Fargo & Co. armored-car warehouse in west Charlotte. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. 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. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. 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. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Who all wanted a Rambo movie which explored his time training as a green beret and his time serving in Vietnam as a prequel to first blood WATCH Antebellum 2020 FULL MOVIE. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. But he wasn't finished. He and Tammy could have one or two meals each week that he really liked, but the rest were hot dogs or Hamburger Helper. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. - 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. "Just think about it," she said. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. He angrily hung up the phone at Loomis, Fargo & Co., his soon-to-be former employer in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Yale and has worked for the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post. 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,. She had attitude. Accompanying her was Steve Chambers, who, though unemployed, had recently moved . In his youth, his mother had taken him to Sears and JCPenney, but as a man he shopped at Walmart, and while he knew there was nothing wrong with that, he wished he could afford more. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Former FBI agent John Wydra, 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. You have permission to edit this article. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. 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. After hanging up on her, David returned to work. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day.. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. 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. 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. 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. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth., White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money,, Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with., She will never get beyond the debt. All but one of the defendants pleaded guilty. Some of that money is just gone. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Most people are going to forgive you. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. Charlotte Observer"more than a crime story, and one that's worth reading." Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. 2023 Cox Media Group. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. The loot would later be divided among David, Kelly, and Steve. Thirty years! Now one of the most wanted men in America with the FBI hot on his heels, Ghantt must figure out how to get his money, get away from a hit man, and get even. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. He could even be famous, perhaps joining the ranks of legendary master thieves. The Star-Ledger, 06/15/2015On October 4, 1997, an amateurish gang robbed Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, NC of $17 million, the second largest heist in U.S. history. The $17 million Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second largest armored car robbery in U.S. history. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for it. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. At about 6:40 p.m., he went back inside. 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. 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. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. Afterward, everything became comical. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? The property has changed hands several times since then. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. 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. Prosecutors say a vault. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. Seven p.m. came and went, and so did 7:20. 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. He had since held one low-paying job after another. Have a youtube channel or website similar? Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market.
Information Technology Manager