Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. Its kind of like that. Our Benefits. Some days, the robbery seems like a memory from a different life, a choice made by a different man. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. He flew in an ultra-light plane. Hidden in it was a 3 1/2-carat diamond ring that cost $43,000. Cool, I say. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Theres no management around. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. . 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. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. "It probably should bother me," he said. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. David complained it wasn't enough. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. The first weekday after the heist, Michele Chambers, co-conspirator Steve's wife, walked into a NationsBank branch with a briefcase containing $5,000. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. David was excited, jabbering about their future together. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? 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. . LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. On Monday, October 6th, the FBI agents who were investigating the robbery located the Loomis Fargo van abandoned in the woods. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. 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. He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. In real life: False. Him and I still talk every now and then. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. Kelly was no criminal. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. In real life: False. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. This is the person I counted as my friend. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. He couldn't talk.". . Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. He kept looking over his shoulder. 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. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. In real life: True. Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. ". Its hilarious. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. 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. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. and "I'm rich!". First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. They put up mauve wallpaper. Looking for Kelly Loomis? 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. Kelly was lying. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. I missed my wife. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' 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. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? "You" has three. So I was glad it was over. Yes, happy. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. They stocked a wine cellar. I hope everyone has moved on. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. "For the first year, they're all over you. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. 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. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Then another. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. "But I had to know.". Ghantt was never in Chamberss presence until he actually handed off the money to him. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. 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 . When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. The figures can be astounding. In real life: False. I hear her typing. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. 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. Health savings account and flexible spending account. 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. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. Posted on . 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) 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. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. But what did that mean? "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. More agents waited outside to arrest them. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy who author Diamant described as very nice. It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that he fled to Mexico without telling her. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. . They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. 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. She was a wife and mother with two children. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. We got this guy named Bruno. . . They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. 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. He longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood, with its private religious-school education and Disney World vacations. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. He didnt even really question me. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. And robbing a truck was dangerous. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. Meanwhile, Steve was keeping a close eye on Kelly. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. And youre like, Come on parachute. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] She could spend time with her children and parents. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. Steve, who had sworn Kelly, Eric and Scott to secrecy the night of the theft, named them all to the FBI. ". Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. I knew it was just a matter of time. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. 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. Besides her prison sentence . Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. >> 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. 4,. Campbell was another employee at Loomis Fargo and she and Ghantt quickly struck up a relationship, one that Campbell denies was ever romantic though FBI evidence says otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. Mine did. They agreed that after the heist, David would immediately move to Mexico, alone, but Kelly would soon join him there, with her two children. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear.

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