The FBI knew they needed to make their move. 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). Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. 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 The plan went off with few problems, but after Ghantt was safely in Mexico, his partners were left storing large amounts of cash. He completed his prison sentence in November 2006. 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. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. They paid for all of it in cash. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. Within two days, the investigators found the van with $3 million in cash and the security camera tapes inside. Campbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and into another van. the Loomis Fargo heist There was, however, one problem with his plan. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. [3][4] Its Charlotte office would be the victim of David Scott Ghantt and his confederates later that year. 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. The details of the heist itself, coupled with the missteps the crew made after stealing the money, attracted the attention of writers and movie producers. 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. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, had never been in trouble with the law. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. Charlotte Agenda is now Axios Charlotte -. new mexico state police vin inspection; does white vinegar lower blood pressure; prudential tcfd report Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Galifianakis is game for anything, including eating a dead tarantula (who knew tarantulas were filled with caramel syrup? By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. How to Market Your Business with Webinars? Also charged were several innocent relatives that the robbers had enlisted to help get safety deposit boxes in various banks. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt of an old high school friend of hers, Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt in executing a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. 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. No dry runs, no rehearsals. And thats OK with Ghantt, whos just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter and happy. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. While listening in, they uncovered another more sinister alleged plan to kill Ghantt. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. [7][8], Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants. Ghantt called Chambers asking for more money, and was promptly arrested near Comuzel, which was a good thing for Ghantt, who had been targeted by a hitman hired by Chambers. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the robbery and then quickly leave the country for Mexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. I was just going to get the money into the van. A comedy film called Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist and starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis, was released in 2016. 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. Thats one of my personality flaws. I studied up on the FBI. WebNo products in the cart. Heres your money. Then he turns around and leaves., The problem was, it was nowhere near the amount Ghantt had expected: Im looking at it, and theres maybe $8,000. They called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. Cool, I say. 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.. As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. WebCampbell 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 Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. They received sentences and probation ranging from several years to 11 years and three months in federal prison for Steve Chambers, who was also fined more than $3,500,000. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Chambers and his wife also made some cash payments on a few cars. Ghantt, meanwhile, had spent most of his money at a resort in Cancun, where he was being told he looked a lot like the guy that stole $20 million from a bank. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. 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. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. 9 Where did the masterminds live after the heist? 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. Officials suspected that the extravagant purchases stemmed from the fact that all involved got far more money than they anticipated and literally didnt know how to spend or get rid of it, which is perhaps backed up by the fact that Chambers wife once walked into a Belmont Wachovia with $200,000 in a briefcase wanting to know how much she could deposit without the bank reporting it to officials. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Product details Publisher : John F Blair Pub (October 1, 2005) Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. On October 6, they found the van with everything that Chambers had left behind, including Ghanttsgun and a clear picture of his face on video, which was identified by supervisors. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, The So-Called Female Delusion Calculator Doesnt Add Up, I Wore Magnetic Underwear for a Week to See If It Would Give Me a Boner of Steel, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. Campbell 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. 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. They loaded the wine cellar with Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Steve hung a velvet portrait of Elvis Presley in the basement. 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. The Latest Innovations That Are Driving The Vehicle Industry Forward, More than $100 million of property stolen, Diamonds, gold, silver and other type of jewelry. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. They got to work planning the straightforward heist that would rely on Ghantts existing access to the vault, fewer staff at the warehouse on the weekends, and the ability to use one of the companys armored trucks to make the successful getaway. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. The Chambers, however, didnt fit in with the other members of the gated community. Me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined 26,000... 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