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shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) 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. Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. My love for my family is by far the most important thing in my life. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. 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. He learned to parachute. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. She was a wife and mother with two children. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. Its hilarious. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. 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. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. 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 robbing a truck was dangerous. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. 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. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. No regrets. Theres some things I want to do., Ghantt planned on traveling from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, bypassing customs along the way. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. The next week, they heard Steve plan to send Mike McKinney to Mexico to kill David Ghantt. Will Vin Sant Leave You Jacked or Scammed? Heres what happened on Sunday nights episode. "You" has three. They were the butt of a national joke. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. Theres less security. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. Dependent care account. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. . What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. 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. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. David kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek on the morning of Oct. 4. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] He didnt even really question me. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. Ghantt ended up doing more than five years in prison, Chambers did more than 11 years. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' Visit us at Loomis.us. 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. But in November, money ran low. . Health savings account and flexible spending account. Question: Are you happy that Wilkesboro-nativeZach Galifianakis plays you in the movie? real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? 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. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Looking for Kelly Loomis? . 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. Michele received the best gift of the night. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. They picked me, he says with a rueful tone. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. . ", "I wouldn't do it. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. There were times when I drank really heavily.". When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. [Kelly] told me, 'Just think about it.' Then another. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. She also must . Things started to go south the night of the robbery. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. In real life: False. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. In real life: False. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. They also left behind a life-changing fortune in small bills $3.3 million in fives and ones that they overlooked and the two videotapes that Ghantt had pulled from the security cameras at the bank. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Loomis officials--forced to break into their own vault because David had taken the keys with him--calculated that he had stolen $17,044,000, making the second biggest heist in U.S. history, following the $18.8 million theft of an armored car by another Loomis Fargo employee just six months earlier. Still, she wasn't happy. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. Yes, Carrie Underwood adopted a dog in Charlotte. Its in the ether. 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. 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. 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. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. We got this guy named Bruno. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. ". Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. Scott, 26, had a larceny conviction as a teenager, but he'd since cleaned up his act and now had a steady job, a daughter and a girlfriend. In real life: Yes and no. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. October was "a blast," he said. Hes very articulate. >> 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,. Not until David was gone did Scott realize he didn't know which key to use. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. 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. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. I mentioned it to Kelly. I hope everyone has moved on. 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.. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Hes well thought-out. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Kelly called David at. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. "We had David Ghantt and Kelly Campbell tied together, and we had Steven Chambers and Eric Payne with unexplained wealth, but we didn't have a tie between them," Agent John Wydra said. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . ", "Even then . Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. 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. Dental plans . Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. They sweated, though the night was cool. You're an idiot.'". Besides her prison sentence . In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. 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. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Military + Veterans. Basic and voluntary life insurance plan. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. The audacity of the act was breathtaking. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. One of them tapped him on the back. And going to see the Mayan ruins. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. And after two years, you're just a file." She tried to apologize for the murder plot. 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. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. He had even scheduled a follow-up appointment at the dentist. Not a documentary. And I knew that by that time, Id be in Cancun no matter what. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. I've got a good woman.". On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, A Highly Questionable Cultural History of Richard Geres Ass Gerbil. Im a very deliberate person. Kelly relayed his message to Steve. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). And youre like, Come on parachute. 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. He frequently entertained there, buying steaks for his guests. 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. He goes, My name is Bruno. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. 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. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. Things were spiraling fast. Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. But it wasnt. Him and I still talk every now and then. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. Ghantt was working a late shift, and just after 6:30 p.m., his coworkers were packing up and heading for home. 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. You can garnish wages. And I was thinking about just showing up there. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. He pocketed the money and told Chambers and Campbell to send him his cut in Mexico. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer. David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant for the film (in theaters Friday). The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. . "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. . David thought about it. All I needed was a change of pace.". Ghantt didn't actually meet Chambers until the night of the heist, though, according to Diamant, who would go on to write a book about it.The . Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. This story was originally published October 3, 2016, 9:12 PM.