loomis fargo heist kelly campbell loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

But he wasn't finished. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Spunk. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. It was 2:00 p.m. on October 4, 1997, and tension was building between two planners of what would rank high among the largest heists in United States history. Copyright The Nashua Telegraph | https://www.nashuatelegraph.com | 110 Main St, Ste 1, Nashua, NH 03060 | 603-882-2741, Loomis Fargo defendants owe as much as they stole in 1997, Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. He even had to watch what he bought at the grocery store. 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. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Her case closes in 2025. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers (and his wifes) activities, but it was not until the FBIrecorded a phone callfrom Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. In fact, he had recently finished a book about the FBI and felt it provided insight into the agency's investigative techniques, insight he thought could help the little gang succeed. Charlotte Observer"more than a crime story, and one that's worth reading." The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. You can seize property. He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. One number is working in Campbells favor. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. 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. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. The building was configured so vans could drive inside and pull up next to the vault. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. 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. In the grand scheme of things, the prison sentence for stealing $20 million wouldn't be much worse than for stealing just $500,000 maybe a few extra years behind bars. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. The gang made numerous mistakes. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing. This website uses cookies and some data tracking to improve your experience and serve adverts, We assume you're ok with this, you can opt-out if you wish. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . He couldn't understand the gap, why he wasn't more successful, why he couldn't at least match the financial stability of his father, who earned a comfortable salary driving a truck. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. His collection case closes in two years. He could even be famous, perhaps joining the ranks of legendary master thieves. The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. 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 stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. For example, 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. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. About six months before the Charlotte theft, on March 29, a total of $18.8 million was taken from Loomis, Fargo in Jacksonville, Fla., in what was believed to be the largest heist in U.S.. Who was she to be pressuring him? Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. Outside of the building, Ghantt met up with Campbell, Chambers, and others who were involved in the plot, and drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. He also took various measures to change his appearance, such asshaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million.. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all., WSOC TV facebook feed(Opens a new window), Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago, ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east Charlotte, mom says, ALSO READ: Leader of $3M check theft, bank fraud scheme in Charlotte area sentenced to prison, ALSO READ: Man released from jail, accused of robbing banks while wearing electronic monitor, police say, ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says, NCSHP arrest driver accused of nearly hitting 2 students at bus stop in Statesville, CMS delays opening of new school meant to ease overcrowding, Mooresville orders removal of memorial at park after teens death, Chick-fil-A announces app data breach, tells customers how to protect personal information, Charlotte woman celebrates $1 million scratch-off prize, WSOC - TV Public File Contact / Program Director, WAXN - TV Public File Contact / Program Director. They didnt expect it.. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. She will never get beyond the debt. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. In the movie: Campbell invites Ghantt to a restaurant under the auspices of a date, but then springs the idea of the heist on him, as Chambers and two associates join the conversation from an . How he and his wife had trouble communicating. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. 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. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. She had attitude. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. In David's eyes, Johnson's big mistake was that he did it alone. They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. He tried again to make the back gate rise, to no avail. Eric Payne got out of prison in 2006 for his role in the heist and has since paid $11,357 on his $292,000 debt. He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. 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. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. He put on his best pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, and his nicest cowboy boots. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. David was thin six-foot-one, one hundred sixty-five pounds and heaving the stacks onto the cart, pushing the cart toward the vault door, and then emptying its contents into the van was exhausting. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" 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. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. Thirty years! The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. (LogOut/ (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. Money. Though much of the cash was already stacked on pushcarts in the vault, other stacks were on shelves or the floor, and they were heavy. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. 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. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. 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. Thank you! Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. They knew Steve Chambers had worked as an informant in the past, and were nervous he would smell out an undercover. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when the heat was off, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case.. But that only tells part of the story. 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. "I was unhappy with my life. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. David placed their odds of success at 85 percent, a confidence inspired by faith not just in his planning but also in his feelings for Kelly. Except for the kiss in the pickup truck a few weeks before the heist, Kelly had kept things platonic. This technically made it abank robbery afederal offense. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Library Journal "highly entertaining." Afterward, everything became comical. 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. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Former Loomis employee David Scott Ghantt is accused of stealing the money. 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. We are happy to work with other website publishers. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. Their most important conversation occurred one afternoon in August 1997 after Kelly paged him at work. The Charlotte area's economy was booming all around him, and he felt passed over. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. Before the robber left Loomis Fargo, he made a trip to the managers office to remove two surveillance tapes in order to conceal his identity. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. "I don't have time to mess with you. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. Some of that money is just gone. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. Asked the purpose of his visit, Johnson had replied, "To visit friends. "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". He knew his mother would be traumatized, shocked, and appalled. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. He deserved better. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Spunk. You can seize property. He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. 2023 Cox Media Group. 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. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. His collection case closes in two years. Over 88% of the money has been recovered since the heist. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or Accompanying her was Steve Chambers, who, though unemployed, had recently moved . However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. (LogOut/ She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. She had attitude. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. 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. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief?