Most high schools offer a variety of history classes, so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. kellis@gastongazette.com View Comments 0:03 1:14 On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. We got this guy named Bruno. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. 4 What is the largest armored car robbery? Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. Campbell was receptive and brought the idea up to Ghantt. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. While Ghantt moved to Mexico to let things cool down after the heist, his robbery cohorts stayed in North Carolina with the bulk of the money. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. But there was just one thing the group hadnt been counting on: the massive weight of that amount of cash. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. If I could get far enough away in a very short amount of time, my odds of getting away with it were pretty high, Ghantt said. Fed up, exhausted, and seeing a way out, Ghantt agreed. Exciting. 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. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. 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. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. It happened on October 4, a Saturday. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 02:50. But after one visit, she asked a teller "How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds?" I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the s In 1997, six men pulled off what remains the biggest cash heist in the history of the United States. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. David Ghantt was portrayed by Zackary Hatfield. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. 9 Where did the masterminds live after the heist? Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, Steven Chambers and Kelly Jane Campbell, also are charged with plotting to kill Ghantt. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. Hed be in contact. They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. Was Loomis Fargo heist real? Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. He was released in 2006. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. WebThis real-life . Heist: The Oddball Crew behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft Jeff Diamant 12 Audio CD 9 offers from $5.86 About the Author Jeff Diamant covered the heist for the Charlotte Observer. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. 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 other, suggested bythen-Observer reporter Jeff Diamant, says that Campbell created the plan with Steve Chambers,a drug dealer who was facing charges for writing $30,000 worth of bad checks, and later got Ghantt involved. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. 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. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. I work construction. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. For the New York State assemblyman, see. 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. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. The leader was Allen Pace, who turned out to be the worst safety inspector the Dunbar Armored trucking company ever employed. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. Marshals Service auctioned off the purchased items in Charlotte, most of which came from the Chambers and Cramers. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. There was, however, one problem with his plan. In spite of Chambers assurance that the money was, you know, totally not illegally acquired, the teller remained suspicious, especially because the stacks of cash still had Loomis Fargo wrappers on them. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. Todd Williamson/Getty ImagesDavid Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the robbery and then quickly leave the country for Mexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. WebWho was involved in the Loomis Fargo robbery? wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases Eventually, Ghantt would return to the United States and the full sum would be split up between the conspirators. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. I was working sometimes 75-80 hrs a week for $8.15 an hour, I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there I was working all the time and unhappy which is understandable considering how old I was at the time. 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. Campbellwho was married herselfrepresented something new and exciting. When she realized Ghantt never came home from work the night before, she contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. The FBI knew they needed to make their move. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. Join the 119,947 smart Charlotteans that receive our daily newsletter. Because Ghantt was the only employee who wasnt there that morning, he became the obvious suspect. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. Directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey, the film stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Jason Sudeikis. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. When he landed in Cancun, his first stop was Walmart. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. 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. Not only was Ghantt the only unaccounted for employee the morning after the heist, there was also footage of Ghantt moving the cash into the back of the Loomis Fargo van. Cool, I say. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. In the film, Jason Sudeikis plays a sadistic assassin hired to knock off Ghantt, who befriends him. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. Not Ghantt. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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