Ghantt, Chambers, and Campbell came up with the following plan: Ghantt would remain in the vault after his shift on the night of the heist, Oct. 4, 1997, and let his co-conspirators into the vault. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. [citation needed], It was later confirmed by the FBI that more than 88% of the stolen cash had been located or otherwise accounted for. Its in the ether. When the rest of the Loomis Fargo employees showed up the next morning and found that they couldnt open the vault, they called the police. Chambers, it turned out, became the biggest source of evidence for the FBI. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Less than a month later, the family moved from a double-wide to a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 home in a gated country club community in Gaston County. By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. While listening in, they uncovered another more sinister alleged plan to kill Ghantt. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. While making only eight dollars an hour in his role as supervisor, Ghantt decided it was time to do something: I was unhappy with my life. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. 8 Who are the actors in the movie Masterminds? When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. WebFigure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. For the New York State assemblyman, see. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. But it wasnt. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. So I was glad it was over. Web12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. Marshals Service auctioned off the purchased items in Charlotte, most of which came from the Chambers and Cramers. 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. Another accomplice, Eric Payne, took a three week, unpaid vacation, had his wife quit her job as a receptionist and bought a new Harley Davidson, Chevy Tahoe, big-screen TV, computer and new trailer. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $30.5 million in 2020). Theres no management around. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. I mentioned it to Kelly. 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. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. Its everything thats coming north.. This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Phillip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.October 1997 Loomis Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the heist of the century, was by far the largest diamond heist.Antwerp diamond heist. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantt's personal safety; they had learned that Chambers had plotted to have Ghantt killed in a murder for hire scheme using a "hit man" named Michael McKinney. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. The plan went off with few problems, but after Ghantt was safely in Mexico, his partners were left storing large amounts of cash. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the second biggest cash heist in U.S. history, fleeing with more than $17 million in untraceable bills in 1997. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. The Loomis Fargo heist became something of a media lightning rod. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. More than 2 million dollars is still missing to this day. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. On July 10, Jon Daly joined the cast of the film to play an FBI agent. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. WebPerry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; kellis@gastongazette.com View Comments 0:03 1:14 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. But there was just one thing the group hadnt been counting on: the massive weight of that amount of cash. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. Chambers and two accomplices, making their way to Vale in order to put the barrels in his home, left behind the staggering $3.3 million that didnt fit and the two security tapes in the Loomis Fargo van that Ghantt had driven. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. You can seize property. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. 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. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Said Ghantt, one day life kinda slapped me in the face. 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. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. WebWas Loomis Fargo heist real? WebCampbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. The pal part is true: The real amateur killer Chambers sent couldnt pull off the crime after traveling to Mexico. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Product details Publisher : John F Blair Pub (October 1, 2005) But because he still owes millions to the IRS, he couldnt be paid. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com, allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. And drastic it was. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. According to an Observer article, signs point to Campbells involvement stemming from the desire to experience what it was like to be rich. I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. The FBI investigation was aided by the gang's extravagant spending. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. 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