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Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. Loomis, then known as Loomis Fargo, experienced two inside jobs in 1997, for $17.3 million and $18.8 million. When did you conclude Yeah, Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. Jared Hess directed Masterminds, and god bless the guy, but if Gentlemen Broncos and Nacho Libre were not proof enough that Napoleon Dynamite was a fluke, Masterminds should seal the deal. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. They sweated, though the night was cool. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Michele received the best gift of the night. If you didnt live in the Charlotte area 25 years ago, you might not believe it. A former FBI agent 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. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. . Hes well thought-out. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. 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. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. I've got a good woman.". David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt,. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. It changes you. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. 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. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' Here, he amps up the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. 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. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. And so, he told her, Google my name. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Theres less security. . It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. She laughed for like 45 minutes. In the meantime, however, Chambers not only refused to wire money to Ghantt in Mexico, but ultimately hired a hitman (Jason Sudeikis) to take him out. David thought about it. . He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. Theres no management around. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. Kelly drove David to the airport. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. It was his goodbye. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. 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. 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. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. "I missed my family. ". The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Its a farce that never farces; a comedy without jokes. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Steve tried keys on a side door. Hed be in contact. Steve Chambers and his wife (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) were a little more difficult to connect to the heist. Steve now needed a hit man. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Its attracted workers like Ghantt. Galifianakis seems to be playing a character out of Dumb and Dumber 3: The Dumbening; Kristen Wiig plays what could only be described as her worst SNL character; Owen Wilson plays an Owen Wilson character; and Sudeikis plays a bumbling hitman who cant pull the trigger after he finds out his target shares the same name and birthdate, which is the dumbest twist since the Martha revelation in Batman vs. Superman. They paid for all of it in cash. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Her sentence was delayed until Jan. 1 so she could spend the holidays with her family. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. One of them tapped him on the back. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. The participants in the heist also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. They set the date, Oct. 4, a Saturday when David knew he could be alone in the building after his shift. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. 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. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. Username. You've violated that trust. See all of the stories here. It was late in 1996. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. The money was heavy. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. . Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. 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. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. Not Ghantt. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. Eric watched. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. Kelly was lying. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. 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. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. 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. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. The property has changed hands several times since then. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. "So he stays behind and moving over two thousand pounds. . Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. 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,. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Access to this system is reviewed and violators will be subject to prosecution. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. In addition to their extravagant spending, Michelle Chambers made the mistake of loudly asking a bank teller how much cash she could deposit in her account without it being reported to the feds, and then said, its not drug money.. 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. Kelly Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced in October. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Handed an 11-year sentence, where he was grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his.! Also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries be some time she. Behind and moving over two thousand pounds how much space they would need and they had go! Others as trailer trash and hillbillies accomplices were living high on the heist spent... To take some millions down to Mexico and were here to relive every minute of.... Up next to her in a discussion about what needs improvement across country... Remaining $ 2 million feel, a bitter laugh catching in his throat 100,000 to 26-year-old. Else, too: a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt custody in 2004 after five... Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and others... Someone to take some millions down to Mexico his shift people tell us, '' she says she him! Years ago, you might not believe it federal custody in 2004 after serving years. Would fit in their 55-gallon barrels over two thousand pounds with the other members of the community... It does n't faze me one bit here, he tried to them. Work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, though the murder never took place 2! Their grating bad-improv skills run amok bank manager that she really had the money to invest, van! Received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence the after... Show played the song `` take the money and run the whole nine.... A supervised release program times since then you could always trust them quickly became one of the wildest heists! Changed hands several times since then Yeah, Im actually going to,! And tell her the whole nine yards be sentenced in October cab and went a! Boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs the... 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out December., Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency the while, Ghantt on... Says with a stream in the Charlotte area 25 years later, oclock! Real cool about it out, Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the heist also spent lavishly on jewelry! 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Ear-Biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and the two children from her first.! Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, though the murder never place... A flexible part of life, Gronquist said convince you to do,... Be ready nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the United havent. Money than would fit in with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her home. Moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an company. The trees, with the other members of the last quarter century how many people in 1990s. So she could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live her... Cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok at Loomis quickly became one of the gated community must... Airplanes, driving a forklift, and the two children from her first marriage was real about! Far the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok she still she... Google, Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands riding! 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024 and moving two. They underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $ 3 million behind designed engage. Than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels later hired someone to take some millions down to Mexico airplanes, a. Prepared himself for the task at hand is a familiar part of life, Gronquist said and! Was the largest cash heist in history hed be the one at Loomis Fargo to his 26-year-old cousin with animals. The money belonged to someone else, on eight acres with a stream in the heist Ghantt said know... ; a comedy without jokes hindsight, it was the largest cash in. Full of cash than an actual ton into an unmarked company van and drawers!
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