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Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. She will never get beyond the debt. They cursed. Without really intending to, Kelly recalls, she turned the conversation to the possibility of a heist. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. They also purchased tanning beds, a pool table, a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and all kinds of expensive furniture. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. His mobile home was nicely furnished, on eight acres with a stream in the back. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. 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.. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. All were convicted. . Health savings account and flexible spending account. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. I'd probably change jobs. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. David complained it wasn't enough. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. Posted on . ". 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. 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. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. He and his wife, Tammy, lived in a mobile home in Kings Mountain, N.C. Money was always tight. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. She could visit friends. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. He had stolen $17 million from Loomis Fargo. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter and happy. 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. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. Ghantt: My cut was supposed to be about $5 million, but that's not what I ended up with. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. There were times when I drank really heavily.". David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). "Think of how many women would have stood by. The last time he called me, he said, Hey Ghantt, I just saw a big Loomis Fargo truck. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. ", "Even then . With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. "I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. . 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. Its hilarious. I knew I was going to be the prime suspect. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. At that same time, Steve was growing sick of the calls to send more money to Ghantt, and was looking for a way to end that issue. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. . 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. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. and "I'm rich!". Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Except the person he offered $150,000 to mule $2.5 million down to Ghantt in Mexico turned him down and instead went to the FBI. 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. You can garnish wages. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Industry leading Training and Development. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. Its in the ether. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. ". 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. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Besides her prison sentence . Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. . What made her do it? In the wee hours of the morning, Chambers and the Erics drove back to the town of Vale, North Carolina, and holed up in a double-wide trailer while counting their cash. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. Chambers, who still lives in Gaston County and operates a gym, declined to comment. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. 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. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Kelly's company. In real life: Yes and no. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' This time, David told McKinney the truth. 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. . Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. I didnt pick the heist team. His name was Corey. That was great. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. Was Queen Charlotte Black? . In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Eric watched. He went deep-sea fishing. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. . Dependent care account. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. 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. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). It changes you. 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. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed.