You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. 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. 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. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day.. 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. Also charged with money laundering were innocent relatives and friends who had co-signed safe deposit boxes. 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. 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. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. 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. Its attracted workers like Ghantt. 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. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. He couldn't understand the gap, why he wasn't more successful, why he couldn't at least match the financial stability of his father, who earned a comfortable salary driving a truck. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. David was thin six-foot-one, one hundred sixty-five pounds and heaving the stacks onto the cart, pushing the cart toward the vault door, and then emptying its contents into the van was exhausting. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. 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. But things didnt quite work out that way. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. David got a kick out of her. It was the second-largest. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Action News Jax facebook feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax twitter feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax youtube feed(Opens a new window), JSO K9 escapes kennel, bites three people in Jacksonville neighborhood, To know Nancy was to love Nancy: St. Johns County woman killed in suspected DUI crash, JSO says missing child alert results in deadly drowning, Senator proposes bill giving state emergency jurisdiction over custody of kids with trans parents, Florida woman accused of killing terminally ill husband released from jail. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. 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. The $17 million Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second largest armored car robbery in U.S. history. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. 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. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. she asked. Its said the current owner now has it in storage in Phoenix, Arizona. be blocked or permanently banned without warning. 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. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. 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. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. Discover some of the worlds strangest ancient places. Her case closes in 2025. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. One number is working in Campbells favor. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. It's been 20 years since the Loomis Fargo heist. - Charlotte Observer When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. Friends of Campbell had also begun spending large amounts of cash. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. Its like, me and you sat down, I have access to pie, you like pie, all I want is my share of the pie. 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. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. 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. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. 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. It was David who was hours away from committing the most daring act of his life, and she was going off about Steve being a serious guy? The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. 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. However, Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Some of that money is just gone. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. 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. David Ghantt And The Ridiculous Loomis Fargo Heist This website uses cookies and some data tracking to improve your experience and serve adverts, We assume you're ok with this, you can opt-out if you wish. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. 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. But he wasn't finished. Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. 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. He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. The property has changed hands several times since then. You can garnish wages. He had since held one low-paying job after another. Conversations about stealing from the company weren't rare for Loomis employees. You can seize property. Thank you! His collection case closes in two years. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all., WSOC TV facebook feed(Opens a new window), Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago, ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east Charlotte, mom says, ALSO READ: Leader of $3M check theft, bank fraud scheme in Charlotte area sentenced to prison, ALSO READ: Man released from jail, accused of robbing banks while wearing electronic monitor, police say, ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says, NCSHP arrest driver accused of nearly hitting 2 students at bus stop in Statesville, CMS delays opening of new school meant to ease overcrowding, Mooresville orders removal of memorial at park after teens death, Chick-fil-A announces app data breach, tells customers how to protect personal information, Charlotte woman celebrates $1 million scratch-off prize, WSOC - TV Public File Contact / Program Director, WAXN - TV Public File Contact / Program Director. Stealing from Loomis Fargo could make him rich, if he got away with it. But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. Kelly Campbell - Wikipedia Except for the kiss in the pickup truck a few weeks before the heist, Kelly had kept things platonic. A customs inspector, asking routine questions of bus passengers, focused her attention on him when his answers reminded her of Tommy Flanagan, the pathological-liar character played by Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. (LogOut/ Jeff Diamant was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer when the heist took place. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. 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. He would then have the bulk of his share sent south of the border. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. His eyes widened and he stopped breathing as he realized that something as mundane as a malfunctioning gate might ruin their entire plan. Spunk. 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. 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. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. 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. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. 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. "What would it take to convince you to do it?" 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 . He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. FBI agents recall surreal story of heist that inspired - WLOS Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. After discussing his job, his marriage, and his everyday struggles, they joked about Loomis and about how easy it would be to steal from the place. He has been a staff writer for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey since 2000. WOMAN GETS TIME IN LOOMIS HEIST - Greensboro News and Record >> 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.. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. 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. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997 - History and Other Things
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