loomis fargo heist kelly campbell loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

The figures can be astounding. Driving away, he said he felt a mix of fear, confidence and excitement that he outsmarted the FBI. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. The van used to move the money was later located a few miles from the warehouse. 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. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. Some of that money is just gone. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. 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 . When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. The property has changed hands several times since then. I appreciate your kind words! 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,. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. 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. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . More calls between the two men, and also between Steve and Kelly Campbell, made it clear that the group was starting to turn on David Ghantt. When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. The gang made numerous mistakes. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. Sunny. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. More than 2 million dollars are still missing to this day. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. she asked. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Jim Gronquist was Campbells defense attorney. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. David and Steve had never met, but Steve had already secured somebody else's birth certificate and social security card for him and given it to Kelly to pass along. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Kelly had approached David with the idea in the summer, knowing he had a crush on her and winning him over with the promise that a shady friend of hers with Mafia ties would help them. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. Growing up, David had been a nice kid, a decent student who was at worst a minor troublemaker and prankster. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? 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. Then they returned it. He tried again to make the back gate rise, to no avail. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. The site features a collection of unexplained, strange and odd mysteries. Charlotte Observer"more than a crime story, and one that's worth reading." Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. You Save 23%. 2023 Cox Media Group. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. He had since served time in prison for the crime and told our sister station WSOC-TV Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. be blocked or permanently banned without warning. I actually loved reading through this post. 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. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. "So he stays behind and moving over two thousand pounds of . What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy aToyota Siennaminivanin two cash installments. 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. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. 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. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. They hadn't slept together or even fooled around much, but he was ready to commit. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. 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. 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. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. Afterward, everything became comical. 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. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. Change). Ghantt said he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the actual robbery and then quickly leave the country forMexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. Living with his wife, Tammy, in a mobile home, he had longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood that had come to seem luxurious, a pipe dream for him now. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. That was taking the long view. But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Steve's a serious guy.". None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. The unsolved crime mystery of Marilyn Sheppard. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning, and called the police. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. She will never get beyond the debt. Its in the ether. They didnt expect it.. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. These cookies do not store any personal information. The corporation handled armored transportation, ATM maintenance and other cash handling services, and had millions of currency stashed in the vault of the North Carolina branch. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. How he felt shorted by life. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth., White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money,, Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with., She will never get beyond the debt. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. Perry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; and Eric Haley Payne.. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or The trainee didn't know to check to make sure it was closed. In his youth, his mother had taken him to Sears and JCPenney, but as a man he shopped at Walmart, and while he knew there was nothing wrong with that, he wished he could afford more. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. It's still the hot topic . 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. Her case closes in 2025. Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. 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. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. Temptation to do something that you think you normally wouldnt do can change a lot of minds when its that kind of cash, and thats what it was., (WATCH BELOW: VIDEO: The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later). An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. NASCAR. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. Spunk. 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. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.'. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats He also stole both existing sets of vault keys and hurried into the manager's office, where three TV security screens and two VCRs were visible. 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. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. 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. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: - Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done. But things didnt quite work out that way. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Discover some of the worlds strangest ancient places. uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. It was the second-largest. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. 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. 2023 Cox Media Group. Steve was a serious guy? The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. He realized his life wouldn't improve unless he did something drastic. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. But he wasn't finished. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. OWLS director fired in wake of new board taking over, New rules will require flood history disclosure in real estate, North Carolina recreational spring flounder season canceled for 2023, Supreme Court seems ready to sink student loan forgiveness, Beach commission gets update on search for new sources of sand for beach nourishment. them. He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for it. 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. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. He stayed at it until the vault was empty. 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. The $17 million Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second largest armored car robbery in U.S. history. The Star-Ledger, 06/15/2015On October 4, 1997, an amateurish gang robbed Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, NC of $17 million, the second largest heist in U.S. history. 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.. 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. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. Who all wanted a Rambo movie which explored his time training as a green beret and his time serving in Vietnam as a prequel to first blood WATCH Antebellum 2020 FULL MOVIE. And once he started, he didn't stop with one cartful. 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. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. They knew Steve Chambers had worked as an informant in the past, and were nervous he would smell out an undercover. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day.. 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.. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Libraries without that edition should consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel. 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) Steve Chambers would keep the rest. 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. It all seemed unfair. What it does is put a ball and chain on that person for the rest of their lives, they are walking around and they are basically an indentured servant, Gronquist said. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Thirty years! He had since held one low-paying job after another. 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. But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. The plan to. 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. "What would it take to make you do it?". 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. - 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. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Library Journal "highly entertaining." It, too, has changed hands several times. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. The movie was called Masterminds and stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Asked the purpose of his visit, Johnson had replied, "To visit friends. If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. just generally being a jerk. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. 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. 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.