loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

Library Journal "highly entertaining." Though much of the cash was already stacked on pushcarts in the vault, other stacks were on shelves or the floor, and they were heavy. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. (LogOut/ Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when the heat was off, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. 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A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. All but one of the 24 defendants pleaded guilty, and the one who didnt take the deal was convicted. How he felt shorted by life. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. The robbery was committed by David Scott Ghantt who was the vault supervisor and accomplices Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers, Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobies, and other four members. At about 6:40 p.m., he went back inside. '. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. "I was unhappy with my life. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. (LogOut/ What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. Thirty years! A report by the General Accounting Office found that as of budget year 2016, $110 billion in restitution ordered by the federal courts was outstanding and that more than 90% of the amount had been classified as uncollectible.. just generally being a jerk. She will never get beyond the debt. The case resurfaced in the federal courts on Thursday, Sept. 1, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte posted a public reminder in the case file of Loomis defendant Kelly Campbell that she had fallen behind in her restitution. "its a great readsuspenseful, often funny, just the thing for those wondering what it might feel like to have, as these hapless, small-town criminals did, literally too darn much cash lying around. " You Save 23%. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . 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. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. Its like, me and you sat down, I have access to pie, you like pie, all I want is my share of the pie. I think if you remember some of her early photographic opportunities, shall we put it that way, she was sort of laughing, not seeming to take it seriously.. He stayed at it until the vault was empty. David and Steve had never met, but Steve had already secured somebody else's birth certificate and social security card for him and given it to Kelly to pass along. A former FBI agent who helped crack the case sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. Friends of Campbell had also begun spending large amounts of cash. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Her case closes in 2025. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la But he wasn't finished. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. He ejected the two VCR tapes that he knew had recorded him stealing the money, took them, and prepared to leave. They succeeded in removing $17 million from the safe. 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. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct.. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. David was supposed to be showing him the ropes of the job, which included cash pickups and deliveries. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. If it didn't work out, he could return to the United States later with a new identity. To visit friends.". "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". The movie was called Masterminds and stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? It was the second-largest. David placed their odds of success at 85 percent, a confidence inspired by faith not just in his planning but also in his feelings for Kelly. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. A couple by the names of Steve and Shelley Chambers also became people of interest in the investigation due to their extreme sudden increase in spending. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. The police almost immediately called theFBI, since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]. You have permission to edit this article. Later, they also arrested Nathans older brother. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. 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. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. He put on his best pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, and his nicest cowboy boots. Have a youtube channel or website similar? Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. These cookies do not store any personal information. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. That way, outsiders couldn't see money being loaded. Thank you so much. Enforcement of this policy is at the He had since held one low-paying job after another. Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. Ghantt had struck up a relationship with a fellow Loomis Fargo employee, Kelly Campbell; they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. That was taking the long view. 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. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. In the grand scheme of things, the prison sentence for stealing $20 million wouldn't be much worse than for stealing just $500,000 maybe a few extra years behind bars. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. 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. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. High around 65F. Its in the ether. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. ", Johnson said, "Yeah, that's it. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. Outside of the building, Ghantt met up with Campbell, Chambers, and others who were involved in the plot, and drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. Some of that money is just gone. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. The plan was to exit through the building's electronic back gate, which consisted of horizontal metal plates that opened at the touch of a button. Spunk. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Thank you! How he and his wife had trouble communicating. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. "Just think about it," she said. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy aToyota Siennaminivanin two cash installments. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later Former FBI agent John Wydra, who helped crack the case, sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. You can seize property. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. This technically made it abank robbery afederal offense. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. He added that money can be a motivator for anyone. He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. The gang made numerous mistakes. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. The figures can be astounding. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. Im married, I got one girl, shes 15 going on 30. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. Low 46F. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. Afterward, everything became comical. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. Their only intimate physical contact had been kissing on a mid-September night when they had driven her pickup truck to a field behind a shooting range in Gaston County to discuss their plans and the theft's chance of success. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. In his youth, his mother had taken him to Sears and JCPenney, but as a man he shopped at Walmart, and while he knew there was nothing wrong with that, he wished he could afford more. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. "I'm busy," he said. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a. Michelle Chambers received a few more months than Ghantt, because she had violated several bond conditions. Prosecutors say a vault. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. Yet their lives seemed far easier and better than his. Steve had hired a bodyguard named Mike McKinney. The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. Ghantt studied how to rob his employer and advised the others not to spend the money lavishly. In Gastonia, David would run into high-school classmates who had never struck him as especially smart. What it does is put a ball and chain on that person for the rest of their lives, they are walking around and they are basically an indentured servant, Gronquist said. Copyright The Nashua Telegraph | https://www.nashuatelegraph.com | 110 Main St, Ste 1, Nashua, NH 03060 | 603-882-2741, Loomis Fargo defendants owe as much as they stole in 1997, Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. She will never get beyond the debt. (LogOut/ The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. CHARLOTTE If you didnt live in the Charlotte area 25 years ago, you might not believe it. David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. The Star-Ledger, 06/15/2015On October 4, 1997, an amateurish gang robbed Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, NC of $17 million, the second largest heist in U.S. history. Most people are going to forgive you. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville is a popular destination. 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