. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. Kelly drove David to the airport. 6-Year Sentence For Kelly Campbell | The Seattle Times All rights reserved. In real life: False. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. They cursed. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. They were the butt of a national joke. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. No hard feelings. It had been drilled into my head that if you give me a team of five good people, I can go anywhere, do anything," David explained. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. 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 wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. In real life: True. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. Question: You went to Mexico. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. That was great. "I was unhappy with my life. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. In real life: False. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Heres your money. Then he turns around and leaves., The problem was, it was nowhere near the amount Ghantt had expected: Im looking at it, and theres maybe $8,000. . At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Looking back at the Loomis heist - Gaston Gazette He flew in an ultra-light plane. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. 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. 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. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. 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. He gave the rest to Kelly. One number is working in Campbells favor. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. ". For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. 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. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. . Careers. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. You're an idiot.'". They sweated, though the night was cool. 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. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. And going to see the Mayan ruins. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. 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.. SEVEN NABBED IN CHARLOTTE HEIST\ - Greensboro News and Record If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Then another. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. Still, she wasn't happy. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. "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. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. Explain? Sweat soaked David's uniform. His name was Corey. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? Was Queen Charlotte Black? Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. 'Masterminds' Review: Loomis Fargo Robbery Where Are They Now? - Pajiba Its everything thats coming north.. He goes, My name is Bruno. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. . Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997 The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - molecularrecipes.com 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery - Strange Unexplained Mysteries Its in the ether. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Visit us at Loomis.us. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. Job Search - Career Portal - Dayforce HCM 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. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. It was the first Saturday in October. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach.