loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. 2023 Cox Media Group. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. At about 6:40 p.m., he went back inside. They knew Steve Chambers had worked as an informant in the past, and were nervous he would smell out an undercover. 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. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. (LogOut/ She had attitude. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. More than 2 million dollars are still missing to this day. David and the trainee left the warehouse. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. But with Kelly's new idea on the table, several dark realities converged on him. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. Eric Payne got out of prison in 2006 for his role in the heist and has since paid $11,357 on his $292,000 debt. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Its in the ether. Kristen Wiig plays Kelly, who really wasn't that into David, but convinced him to take a fortune from Loomis Fargo in the fall of '97. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. It was 2:00 p.m. on October 4, 1997, and tension was building between two planners of what would rank high among the largest heists in United States history. Moving the money into the van quickly proved an onerous task. 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. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. 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. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may Why do we feel its so necessary to treat people like this, to say, OK, well just ruin the rest of your life because you made a bad decision., Punishment should not last a lifetime. Four-wheeling. Getting that off his chest calmed him some, and the conversation returned to the plan. Unexplained Mysteries - owned by Aliens since 2011. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? "Don't back out on us. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. You can garnish wages. of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The corporation handled armored transportation, ATM maintenance and other cash handling services, and had millions of currency stashed in the vault of the North Carolina branch. 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. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. You can seize property. It's still the hot topic . Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. He deserved better. The property has changed hands several times since then. Johnson had stolen $18.8 million earlier in the year, on March 19, 1997, only to be caught five months later, in late August, while crossing into Texas from Mexico to retrieve some of the money, which he'd hidden in a shed in mountainous western North Carolina. He hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. He and Tammy could have one or two meals each week that he really liked, but the rest were hot dogs or Hamburger Helper. Enforcement of this policy is at the Temptation to do something that you think you normally wouldnt do can change a lot of minds when its that kind of cash, and thats what it was., (WATCH BELOW: VIDEO: The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later). The walk-in vault was a fortified gray room, more wide than long, with shelves, cabinets, desks, and multiple pushcarts stocked with shrink-wrapped cash. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs., Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it,, You can garnish wages. The world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. Jim Gronquist was Campbells defense attorney. 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. Sunny. 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 allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. The $17 million Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second largest armored car robbery in U.S. history. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. Steve was a serious guy? Steve's a serious guy.". Some of that money is just gone. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. 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. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. Its said the current owner now has it in storage in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. 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. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. He had joined the army and earned an honorable discharge, but because of defense-industry cutbacks he hadn't been able to find a good job for himself. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Winds light and variable. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. Why do we feel its so necessary to treat people like this, to say, OK, well just ruin the rest of your life because you made a bad decision., Punishment should not last a lifetime. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. Expanded two-hour true crime story about the 1997 Loomis-Fargo armored car heist in North Carolina and the serio-comic fate of its bumbling underdog perpetra. 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. After marrying Tammy in 1992, he worked fueling airplanes at the airport in Hilton Head, South Carolina. It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. At 2:20 p.m., the phone rang; it was Kelly again. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Loomis Fargo, the nation's largest privately held armored- car company, used vans to transport hundreds of millions of dollars a day belonging to banks and other businesses, stocking automated teller machines and storing money in the Loomis vault between deliveries. If we can sit on the money for a year, maybe two, it could work.". Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers (and his wifes) activities, but it was not until the FBIrecorded a phone callfrom Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. In the movie: Campbell invites Ghantt to a restaurant under the auspices of a date, but then springs the idea of the heist on him, as Chambers and two associates join the conversation from an . So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. She had attitude. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. 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. 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. 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. 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.. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. 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. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also. In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. Most people are going to forgive you. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for 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 was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. They also bought aBMW Z3with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 statue of aNative American. Then they returned it. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. 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. The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. The police almost immediately called theFBI, since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Kelly had approached David with the idea in the summer, knowing he had a crush on her and winning him over with the promise that a shady friend of hers with Mafia ties would help them. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. In preparation for what lay ahead, David had backed an unmarked company Ford Econoline van near the vault entrance and opened the van's back door. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. CHARLOTTE If you didnt live in the Charlotte area 25 years ago, you might not believe it. "I don't have time to mess with you. Was the temptation too much? Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist.

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