real life kelly campbell loomis fargo

And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. 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. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. . Actor Owen Wilson plays him in the movie, which includes the real names of all the major players. Its everything thats coming north.. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. I'd probably change jobs. Ghantt:I don't think he ever really meant to harm me. The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. Then another. 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. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. At 7:45, David had finished loading. The figures can be astounding. 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. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Steven Chambers [Misc. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. . Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. . Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. 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. Kelly was lying. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. ". 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. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. She was the group's only contact with David, and she was smoking marijuana "like other people smoke cigarettes," she said. Her case closes in 2025. More agents waited outside to arrest them. Heist!: The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - amazon.com This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. 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. Hed be in contact. It changes you. That time in prison was actually good for me. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. . 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. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Health savings account and flexible spending account. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. They were the butt of a national joke. Kelly called David at. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. 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. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. He said every year he files his taxes and the IRS takes all of his tax return. Or that it was an inheritance. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. 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. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] Kelly told the FBI she had done drugs with David but denied knowing about the theft. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? 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. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. 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. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Were others involved? . I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. You might as well go all the way now.". "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' That was great. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. "I" has one letter. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. Everybody seemed stunned. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. 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. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. She could visit friends. ". CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. They stocked a wine cellar. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. I can take it.". In real life: True. I told them, Take it, box it up, and youll be able to ship it to me in Mexico. Back in the 1990s, you couldve probably boxed up a hot pink elephant and shipped it to Mexico; no one wouldve ever noticed. 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. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. 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. Its a yes: Clover teen shakes off nerves to earn American Idol golden ticket, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. An officer rang the doorbell. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Campbell and her husband had always been just scraping by, however in the weeks following the robbery, the two seemed to have more money than they've ever had. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. One of them tapped him on the back. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. 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. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. He gave the rest to Kelly. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar I've got a good woman.". Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Our Benefits. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. It was his goodbye. Ghantt was working as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte in 1997, earning about $8 an hour and tired of his humdrum life. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. . By . When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. And so, he told her, Google my name. Him and I still talk every now and then. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Together, they drove in a convoy to an industrial warehouse eight miles away, where Eric Payne, a fourth accomplice was. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist - phnxathletica.com One thing about teammates, in David's view: You could always trust them. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. It affects everybody different. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. ". Because surprise! David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. No hard feelings. They put up mauve wallpaper. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. "You" has three. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. They cursed. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. In mid-November, McKinney carried $10,000 to Cancun but wound up spending most of it on himself. 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. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. Its kind of like that. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? 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. 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. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. How Did David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers Steal More Than Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. In real life: True. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. 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. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. Kelly Loomis Facebook, Instagram & Twitter on PeekYou In real life: True. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. "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. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. The van door opened. In real life: False. 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. 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. 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.

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