The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.99. 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.. 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. 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. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Kristen Wiig plays Kelly, who really wasn't that into David, but convinced him to take a fortune from Loomis Fargo in the fall of '97. CHARLOTTE (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. 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. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. We are happy to work with other website publishers. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. I actually loved reading through this post. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Things,Cool Interesting stuff has been online since early 2011. The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. 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Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. David and the trainee left the warehouse. Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. David told Kelly they would have to control themselves and not spend the money too quickly, because the FBI could electronically trace a suspect's recent spending activity through bank papers, credit card records, and land transactions. 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. FILE - Kelly Campbell, one of the 21 people convicted for their involvement in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist, awaits sentencing for her part in the theft at her mobile home near Mount Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. And after two years, the case is just a file. 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. Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. The property has changed hands several times since then. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Libraries without that edition should consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel. He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The unsolved crime mystery of Marilyn Sheppard. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs., Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it,, You can garnish wages. They had to be extremely careful not to tip off the group, as they could lose potential conspirators or more information important to a conviction. 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. I gotta go.". Breakdown by congressional district, States' push to define sex decried as erasing trans people, North Carolina Supreme Court hears felony voting rights case, North Carolina House GOP modifies rules on veto overrides, N. Carolina speaker, lawmaker uninjured after SUV rammed, UPS chooses Onslow County site for expansion, EPA orders 'pause' of derailment contaminated waste removal, My Sisters House: helping women in cycle of incarceration, Talent cycle keeps rolling for East boys basketball program, Carteret County Board of Education adopts resolution calling for flexibility in school calendar law, Emerald Isle to have public comment period on 2023-24 budget Tuesday night, Jury quickly finds Murdaugh guilty of murder of wife, son, After their genitals were cut, some women search for healing, N. 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Carolina House GOP again modifies rules on veto overrides, Murdoch says some Fox hosts 'endorsed' false election claims, Havelock officials warn public about alligator near Walmart, Cape Carteret buys new utility vehicle to aid in picking up litter, New taxi, shuttle business seeks license to operate in Morehead City, Report: Navy ships face growing maintenance delays, costs, Fisheries division to survey for-hire watermen, National Enquirer, ensnared in catch-and-kill is sold. These cookies do not store any personal information. Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. 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.. But that only tells part of the story. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. He had joined the army and earned an honorable discharge, but because of defense-industry cutbacks he hadn't been able to find a good job for himself. He realized his life wouldn't improve unless he did something drastic. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. (LogOut/ But things didnt quite work out that way. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. 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. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. Steve and Michelle Chambers, who had lived in a mobile home, bought a mansion in Cramer Mountain. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. 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. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. In the parking lot, David sat in his pickup truck smoking a cigarette and waving good-bye as the trainee drove home. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. On the evening ofOctober 4, 1997, the Loomis Fargo & Co branch in Charlotte, North Carolina was in the process of being plundered. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. : The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft. 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. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may A customs inspector, asking routine questions of bus passengers, focused her attention on him when his answers reminded her of Tommy Flanagan, the pathological-liar character played by Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live. 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. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. 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. He stayed at it until the vault was empty. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. After marrying Tammy in 1992, he worked fueling airplanes at the airport in Hilton Head, South Carolina. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. 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. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! About the worst he had done as a teenager was stealing a construction company's Porta-Jon with a friend, tying it to the back of a pickup truck, and driving around for about fifteen minutes. 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. 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) None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. You can seize property. It was David who was hours away from committing the most daring act of his life, and she was going off about Steve being a serious guy? Thank you so much. >> 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.. 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. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. Action News Jax facebook feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax twitter feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax youtube feed(Opens a new window), JSO K9 escapes kennel, bites three people in Jacksonville neighborhood, To know Nancy was to love Nancy: St. Johns County woman killed in suspected DUI crash, JSO says missing child alert results in deadly drowning, Senator proposes bill giving state emergency jurisdiction over custody of kids with trans parents, Florida woman accused of killing terminally ill husband released from jail. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. 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. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash.