kelly campbell and david ghantt
In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. 2021 museumfacts.co.uk | All rights reserved. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Florida when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now, and what went wrong with a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. Keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000, which was the maximum that could by law be taken across the border of Mexico without authorization. Question: You were a consultant? However, he was running short of funds. Within a few months, they were arrested. Guillermo dos Santos Coelho. Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Meanwhile, Chambers would hold on to most of the cash and send Ghantt small amounts of money as and when required. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. 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. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The Chambers traded in their trailer for a $635,000 mansion in Cramer Mountain - bought with mostly $20 . Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. According to federal indictments, some of Ghantts co-conspirators were planning to fly to Mexico and kill him. In less than a month after the heist, Chambers and his wife moved out of their trailer and relocated into a 7,000-square-foot, $635,000 mansion. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, David Ghantt was the mastermind behind the 3rd largest bank robbery in U.S. history. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. Founder With Four Million Fake Customers Tricked JPMorgan Out Of $175 Million, Police Search For More Than 70 Bodies After Woman Claims Dad Was A Serial Killer, Mother Turned Her Own Son In To Police As She Was Afraid He Would Attack School. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. All those planes landin' and takin' off and such. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. This story was originally published October 1, 2017, 6:44 PM. There was a book published in 2002 as well, by author Jeff Diamant called,Heist! They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was the $17.3 million cash robbery of the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis Fargo & Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, by armored car driver and vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt.An FBI criminal investigation (which became international in scope) ultimately resulted in the arrest and conviction of eight people . They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. I would call us friends. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. Surveillance tapes and photographs showed a man who the FBI believes is Ghantt taking bags of money and putting them onto a cart in the vault at Loomis, Fargo's offices in Charlotte. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. He walked out with $17.3 million in cash and a movie-ready story. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Afterward, outside the courthouse, her parents said the length was about what she had expected. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. David Ghantt, el "cerebro" del golpe. After the Loomis Fargo heist, when the arrests were made, Ghantt and seven others pleaded guilty in federal court to the charges. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, not wanting to keep a low profile. jim martin death couples massage class san diego beaver falls football real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." David Ghantt: Oh, God! Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. 69-year-old suffers stroke in his home; Realtor showing house leaves him there. Michele Chambers declined to make a statement at the hearing. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. 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. Authorities had the receipt and had known it was missing. When things calmed down, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S., and the money was split up among all co-conspirators. 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 . I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. }, First published on March 2, 1998 / 2:20 PM. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) is slowly creeping by in life driving an armored truck.His life is at a stall and he's slowly dwindling down into the trash life that was destined for him. The images of the aftermath the huge house on Cramer Mountain with its leopard-print carpet, the blue barrels full of money, the lonely hotel room in Playa del Carmen where Ghantt ate M&Ms instead of going to the beach endured long after 21 people were convicted for their connections to the heist. It was the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, and it wasnt solved right away. In the coming years, a movie was made about the Loomis Fargo heist, called the Masterminds. The phone calls began to get more intense when Steve and Eric got suspicious of a man who was running hismouth about them and the vault job over in Charlotte. They soon realised that their joke was not a far-fetched idea. Your daily dose of History. Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect, Elizabeth Holmes has second child, seeks to delay prison, Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. At the time . Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. 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. She's a great speaker and a great writer. He rarely went to the nearby beach, she said. ``This defendant was second to Steve Chambers in (benefiting) from the crime,' he said. Michele Chambers' sentence was two months longer than that given to David Scott Ghantt, the Loomis employee who removed the money from the company vault on Oct. 4, 1997. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. As they had so much money, Chambers wife thought it would be a great idea to deposit a chunk of it into a bank. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. Ghantt went on to explain that he rarely even looks at his debt statement to the government, but believes the IRS says he still owes them $3.8 million. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. In August 1997, Campbell told Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers, Steve Chambers. Chambers essentially put a hit on Ghantt. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, . Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. Not a documentary. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Ghantt continued to languish in Mexico, having spent most of the $25,000 he took with him to a Cancun resort. FINANCE. Its available to stream on Netflix, and the description on the site starts with the phrase Four dim-witted Southerners, which should tip you off that this retelling deserves a few grains of salt. Ghantt:It's a comedy. Prosecutors also resisted Culler's efforts to downplay Michele Chambers' role in the theft. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. He have since served time in prison for the crime, and told Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. The man's famil, Growing up in Goldsboro, Greensboro Day senior Jaydon Young averaged 25.9 points per game as a freshman at Wayne Christian. Well, we bring to you a bank heist so ridiculous and poorly planned, that you will think I can plan a better heist!. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). He left for the border, winding up at the popular Yucatan Peninsula resort island. Since he was the only employee unaccounted for the following day, they checked the tapes for clues. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. In fact, they got carried away and upgraded to a sudden lavish lifestyle. He has been open about the heist and his life and had no qualms about it. SEARCH. She said that he could assist Ghantt in executing a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. All rights reserved. I recently watched her talk at the University of Arizona and it was a great overview of how . No hard feelings. Though she agreed to cooperate with the government when she pleaded guilty to bank larceny and money laundering in August 1998, Michele Chambers didn't tell the FBI she still had the ring until December, when she turned it in. A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. 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