Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? And robbing a truck was dangerous. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Haz clic en Gestionar ajustes para obtener ms informacin y gestionar tus opciones. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. The cash was covered with dog food. Thats one of my personality flaws. Everybody seemed stunned. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? The towns booming construction industry attracts workers from around the country. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. He learned to parachute. 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.. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. There is nothing of value in this movie. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. Steve tried keys on a side door. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Her case closes in 2025. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. They stocked a wine cellar. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Michele received the best gift of the night. Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. 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. "I missed my family. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. One number is working in Campbells favor. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. So yeah, Ghantt continues, I took a bus from there to Atlanta, and then I hopped a cab from the bus station to the airport in Atlanta., Back in North Carolina, his accomplices were working as fast as they could to hide the $17 million. They bought a BMW roadster. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. 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 FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. Were others involved? See all of the stories here. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. . JACKSONVILLE, Fla. This month marked 25 years since one of the biggest armored car heists in U.S. history. 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. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. I loved it. A third tape he didn't know about kept recording. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. Some of that money is just gone. Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. 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. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. Its hilarious. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. Name. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to North Carolina. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. 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. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. . Then he and Campbell drove 90 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, where Ghantt planned to purchase a ticket to Mexico so he could be out of the country before news of the robbery broke the next morning. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. I've got a good woman.". Was the temptation too much? However, the FBI knew immediately who robbed the vault (Ghant was seen on video camera), and it didnt take long for the FBI to loop in Kelly Campbell. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Masterminds which opens nationwide today (though youd be hard pressed to know that given the decided lack of promotion) is proof again that all the talent in the world cannot salvage a bad script, and not even a good screenwriter can make up for terrible performances. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. "He was in tears. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. However, the fact that a man who formerly lived in a mobile home was lavishly spending money on a luxury home ($635,000 in cash), expensive cars, and a ring ($42,000 in cash) eventually made it easy to connect the dots. But if you did, youll never forget it. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. It was the first Saturday in October. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. You can garnish wages. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. You're an idiot.'". ALSO READ: Leader of $3M check theft, bank fraud scheme in Charlotte area sentenced to prison, The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. But in November, money ran low. his keys and wedding ring. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. 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. . The figures can be astounding. In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly said. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. It was late in 1996. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. The modern company was formed in 1997 by the consolidation of two armoured security concerns, Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc. Their international network covers over 200 operating locations in the US and eleven western European countries. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. 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. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Going south, nobody really looks at what youre shipping. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. 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