Within the next two days, investigators found an abandoned van with the security tapes and a staggering $3.3 million! Their plan was fairly straightforward: Ghantt was to remain in the vault after his shift on the night of the heist, October 4, 1997. That movie, Masterminds was filmed in 2014. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) is unfulfilled in his life, unhappy with his work -- and that work is driving the armored car bringing thousands of dollars to and from banks every day. So they went to Mexico and arrested Ghantt in order to protect him. The events that led to the Loomis Fargo heist started with Ghantt entering a relationship with fellow employee Kelly Campbell. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. This former Kings Mountain resident finished his shift as a vault supervisor for the branch in Charlotte. . Agents speculate that after the Loomis robbery in Jacksonville, many Loomis employees including Ghantt and Campbell, sat around discussing the incident. 2023 Cox Media Group. While they had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, Chambers had no intention of following those rules. Thank you! Did you get paid? Ghantt was working as a Loomis Fargo security when he committed the robbery, and Campbell had . Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to . 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 . Here you'll find all collections you've created before. Shortly after, investigators found Ghantt's pickup truck abandoned at the warehouse. 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. Steve decided to send his cousin, Nathan with money down to Mexico as a ruse, while Mike the bodyguard would follow behind to take care of Ghantt. All Rights Reserved. In October 1997, David Ghantt walked into the vault at Loomis Fargo. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. "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. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. Besides wearing the ring, driving the BMW, and living in the new house, prosecutors say Michele Chambers helped others deposit millions of dollars in safe-deposit boxes in the area, and that she took $200,000 in cash into a Salisbury bank in November 1997 and came out with a $200,000 check. 25 years later David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself . As Ghantt was the only employee absent, he was marked as the obvious suspect. Since he was the only employee unaccounted for the following day, they checked the tapes for clues. Authorities say Steve and Michele Chambers moved from a mobile home into a $635,000 house three weeks after the theft. 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. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. I appreciate your kind words! Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. Federal Judge Graham Mullen sentenced her to between those lengths. Bank heists are ideally supposed to have meticulous planning right? He would leave most of the money with Campbell and share it evenly when he returned with Campbell to leave him enough money to live. . She is a self-proclaimed "super-self-aware person" and this is her first guest post on the blog. Perry identified the other six people arrested as Steve and Michelle Chambers; Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis employee; Michael L. McKinney; Thomas Nathan Grant; and Eric Haley Payne. Authorities had the receipt and had known it was missing. The office in Charlotte would be the victim of Ghantt in the year of the opening. 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. Downtown Asheville was cast as a movie set this week, as a major motion picture production filmed in the city center on Tuesday and Wednesday. 0:44. But former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt can. The phone calls began to get more intense when Steve and Eric got suspicious of a man who was running hismouth about them and the vault job over in Charlotte. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ While the FBI spent five months looking for David Scott Ghantt, authorities say his accomplices in a $17 million heist were living the high life _ a new car, a new home, even breast implants for one. Who all wanted a Rambo movie which explored his time training as a green beret and his time serving in Vietnam as a prequel to first blood WATCH Antebellum 2020 FULL MOVIE, Your email address will not be published. He attended the big Los Angeles premiere and enjoyed being a part of it. With Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Ross Kimball. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. David Ghantt may have walked out of the Loomis Fargo heist with the money in hand but then the problems started piling up. The man at the center of that heist was David Scott Ghantt. David Ghantt : I've never even been to the airport but about twice in my life. Thank you so much. What the men didnt know was that the FBI was listening to their phone call. The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was a robbery of $17.3 million in cash from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997, by vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steve Chambers, his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies and four other co-conspirators. Instead, he was plotting to kill Ghantt - and burning through a great deal of cash. But as she didnt want to seem suspicious, she just asked the teller, how much could she deposit without attracting the attention of the feds. Finally, despite a few hiccups, Ghantt successfully made his way to Mexico with $50,000 in hand. Next, he went to the managers office and took out the tapes from two security cameras. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. It was committed by David Ghantt and the heist subsequently inspired the comedy movie Masterminds. The receptionist told DePriest that she could see the pain on Ghantts face, though she didnt know what caused it. Upon viewing it the investigators saw exactly what had taken place that night. Steve and Michelle Chambers moved from a mobile home into the $635,000 house. David Ghantt was the Treasury Supervisor for Loomis Armored Cars, Fargo & Co. Le seul rayon de soleil dans son existence banale, c'est sa jolie collgue, Kelly Campbell. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. Over 88% of the money has been recovered since the heist. A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. According to an affidavit, at least some of the suspects spent large sums of money following the robbery. This company employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. NEWS. Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. The tapes showed Ghantt removing cash cubes and loading them into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. The plot revolves around Ghantt who teamed up with his former loomis co-worker Kelly Campbell. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. It was the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, and it wasnt solved right away. They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. Question: You were a consultant? Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars-worth of temptation. David ist einer der Mnner, die fr Banken Unsummen an Dollars von A nach B fahren. Authorities said they hired a man named Michael McKinney to meet up with Ghantt and kill him, under the guise that he was planning to give Ghantt more of the money he was owed. That was the most painful truth to come to. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Florida when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now, and what went wrong with a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. . Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. 25 Feb/23. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners' lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the group's demise. Kelly Campbell: Oh, my gosh. A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Both were involved in the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, in which a group of people stole $17 million from the main . Within a few months, they were arrested. The next day, before Mike was able to leave the country, the FBI arrested him in his hotel room. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. LIFE. They knew Steve Chambers had worked as an informant in the past, and were nervous he would smell out an undercover. Their relationship continued after she left the company. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago. When Ghantt was found in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, five months after the heist, DePriest and photographer Kent Johnson raced to the airport, according to Observer records. When did you conclude yeah Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. 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. David Ghantt normally came home between 6 and 8 p.m., and often he was late, his wife said. This story was originally published October 1, 2017, 6:44 PM. The bank was robbed on Oct. 4, 1997, by one of their security guards, David Ghantt, and his girlfriend, Kelly Campbell, a former employee at the time. Campbellwho was married herselfrepresented something new and exciting. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. }, First published on March 2, 1998 / 2:20 PM. The Loomis Fargo heist happened in Charlotte, North Carolina when this bank was the target of a robbery. 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. LRM had an exclusive phone . They didnt stop there, they then proceeded to buy luxury cars, big-screen TVs and other extravagant items. I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of, To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the, Rebel Wilson 'collapsed' after Ramona Agruma proposal: 'I was so overwhelmed', Amy Grant recalls being 'so scared' to return to touring following serious bike accident, Travis Scott being sought by NYPD after alleged nightclub assault, Zachary Levi talks Shazam! future after DC shake-up: 'I'll keep playing this role as long as I can', Get your Din Djarin on with this replica 'Mandalorian' helmet. Her husband, Steve Chambers, whom prosecutors have called the main defendant, began serving an 11-year sentence earlier this year. "I'm glad I've grown out of that.". Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). The robbers left it behind as they simply didnt have room for all that cash. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the second biggest cash heist in U.S. history, fleeing with more than $17 million in untraceable bills in 1997. Chaque jour, c'est la mme routine : au volant de son camion blind, il transporte des millions de dollars qui ne lui appartiennent pas. He and his wife, Michelle, moved from their mobile home in Lincoln County to a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section of Cramerton. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, . I worked sometimes 75-80 hours a week for $ 8.15 an hour, I didn't even have a real life at home because I was never there, I worked all the time and was unhappy, which is understandable considering how old I was then. The movie, about a famous Charlotte bank . Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. 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