Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. Hes very articulate. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. . The theft at the time the second-largest cash robbery in U.S. history has been the brunt of mocking movies and books, mostly on how the thieves, who had little money to begin with, could not control their spending habits once they did. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. Kelly drove David to the airport. Steve tried keys on a side door. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Some of that money is just gone. The movie was overly silly and, based on a post-screening conversation with former Observer reporter Jeff Diamant who wrote a detailed 279-page book about the occasionally funny but mostly just-plain fascinating crime, titled Heist much of what wound up in the film is fiction. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. She laughed for like 45 minutes. About 5:45 a.m., he got into his pickup and began the 45-minute drive to work in Charlotte. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. By . It affects everybody different. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. This time, David told McKinney the truth. I knew it was just a matter of time. 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. Still, she wasn't happy. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Hed be in contact. I hear her typing. Thats one of my personality flaws. And youre like, Come on parachute. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. 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. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Dependent care account. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. In real life: True. That time in prison was actually good for me. Dental plans . Even still, he was 27, married and struggling to provide for his family. ". He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. You can seize property. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. 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. 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) Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. She just called me up on the phone and said, Hey, lets meet one day after work. And then, we were talking and she says, How do you feel about robbing Loomis Fargo? Ghantt tells me. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. Then another. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. That was the most painful truth to come to. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Posted on . David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. Or that it was an inheritance. Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. He didnt even really question me. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Theres no management around. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. See all of the stories here. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." "For the first year, they're all over you. . She didn't plan to move to Mexico. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. He didn't want to abandon his parents. "Love" has four. When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. 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. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. And so, he told her, Google my name. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. "Think of how many women would have stood by. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. 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. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. Her case closes in 2025. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. 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. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. It was his goodbye. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. He kept looking over his shoulder. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. ". "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. Visit us at Loomis.us. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. 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. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. And robbing a truck was dangerous. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. . Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. ". But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. 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. I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. We spoke to the FBI agents who investigated the case who say the real-life. Industry leading Training and Development. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. It was the first Saturday in October. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. 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. When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. Its kind of like that. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. "You" has three. . He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Question: You were a consultant? 27 febrero, 2023 . Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder.