Its everything thats coming north.. 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. Ghantt would pocket the $50,000 and head to Mexico with Campbell, where hed stay until it was safe to come back. So with the assistance of a co-worker and possible love interest as well as a small-time criminal, David Ghantt pulled off the then-second-largest cash heist in U.S. history. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. Hello, federal suspicious activity report. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. WebThis real-life . David Ghantt attends the after party for the Premiere Of Relativity Media's "Masterminds" on September 26, 2016 in Hollywood, California. Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. One of the best ways to learn more about U.S. history is to make sure youre taking history classes. Ghantt sent home a new employee and quickly loaded the money into the back of a bank van. Turns out, most of the thieves and their accomplices have been about as effective coming up with their court-ordered restitution as they were hiding their original crimes. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Ask below and we'll reply! Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. As you probably know, its loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Her case closes in 2025. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. 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. His name was Corey. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the When the rest of the Loomis Fargo employees showed up the next morning and found that they couldnt open the vault, they called the police. Authorities said they hired a man named Michael McKinney to meet up with Ghantt and kill him, under the guise that he was planning to give Ghantt more of the money he was owed. Or that it was an inheritance. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LCR9zyGkbo. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. More than 2 million dollars is still missing to this day. October 26, 1999. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the 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. He was like OK, yeah, we can do that, she recalled. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Him and I still talk every now and then. There are two ideas as to how the plan was created. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. Officials suspected that the extravagant purchases stemmed from the fact that all involved got far more money than they anticipated and literally didnt know how to spend or get rid of it, which is perhaps backed up by the fact that Chambers wife once walked into a Belmont Wachovia with $200,000 in a briefcase wanting to know how much she could deposit without the bank reporting it to officials. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the groups demise. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. The reason Ghantt got involved wasalways the same: he realized that he couldnt make his credit card payments, and was thus unable to support his family. In the end, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo heist. Florida Gov. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. The Latest Innovations That Are Driving The Vehicle Industry Forward, More than $100 million of property stolen, Diamonds, gold, silver and other type of jewelry. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. 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. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing "cubes of cash" and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. While listening in, they uncovered another more sinister alleged plan to kill Ghantt. WebLoomis Fargo Robbery There is a vault reserved for only the most outrageous, preposterous, and far-fetched real life stories. He then proceeded to load about $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in $20 bills) into the back of a company van. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Was Loomis Fargo heist real? 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. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. WebWord trickled in to the FBI that Ghantt had a romantic interest in a former coworker, Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty What ACT target score should you be aiming for? But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Dont worry, its not drug money.. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. But it wasnt. speedway of nations manchester 2021. rossignol skis experience 88 As he later recalled about his life before the 1997 heist that changed his life forever: Prior to, I would have never even considered it but one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Wyatt Redd is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. For the New York State assemblyman, see. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Hed be in contact. No dry runs, no rehearsals. The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the heist of the century, was by far the largest diamond heist.Antwerp diamond heist. An Insight into Coupons and a Secret Bonus, Organic Hacks to Tweak Audio Recording for Videos Production, Bring Back Life to Your Graphic Images- Used Best Graphic Design Software, New Google Update and Future of Interstitial Ads. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could by law be taken across the border without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popular Yucatan Peninsula resort-island of Cozumel. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. The U.S. On similar grounds, four other people were ultimately also charged with money laundering. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Bank name Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997, by vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steve Chambers, his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies and four other co-conspirators. To say nothing of their art purchases like the aforementioned velvet Elvis portrait and a painting of a bulldog dressed as General George S. Patton. Where did the masterminds live after the heist? She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. Some of that money is just gone. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? The connection to Chambers took more time. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. Its heavy. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of, To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. 9 Where did the masterminds live after the heist? Something was going on in Cramerton, the multiple callers said. Inside were, along with other personal items, his keys and wedding ring. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. I work construction. The morning after the height, employees of Loomis Fargo realized they couldnt open the vault. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. She will never get beyond the debt. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. And going to see the Mayan ruins. 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