By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. . October was "a blast," he said. In real life: True. The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. Dental plans . It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. There was, however, one problem with his plan. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. "He was in tears. They paid for all of it in cash. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Im a very deliberate person. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Loomis Armored Shreveport, LA, 1124 Forum Dr, Shreveport, LA, USA Shreveport, LA, USA Req #1990. 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 Mountain. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. 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. Kelly was no criminal. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. So I guess I have no regrets. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. Its in the ether. Or is the loot buried in somebody's yard? Mine did. 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. He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. 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. . He would pay McKinney $250,000, half upfront. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. ". To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? ". I loved it. "I thought he was goofing around.". Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Him and I still talk every now and then. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Visit us at Loomis.us. I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Speaking of his co-defendants, Ghantt says hes not currently in contact with any of them. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. All were convicted. She tried to apologize for the murder plot. The van door opened. Ghantt:It baffles me to this day. He learned to parachute. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. and "I love money!" In real life: False. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. Michele received the best gift of the night. It changes you. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. At 7:45, David had finished loading. In real life: False. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. I hope everyone has moved on. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. 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. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. . . CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ A woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored car company Loomis, Fargo & Co. was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million. He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. That was the most painful truth to come to. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. Steve had another conversation with Kelly about killing David. When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. In a word, "Teamwork. You've violated that trust. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". No dry runs, no rehearsals. Ghantt was in fact hiding out in Mexico using McKinneys I.D., which had been sold to Chambers months earlier. 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. About 200 keys dangled from it. I'd probably change jobs. Posted on . The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. ". Kelly was lying. 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. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. 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. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. But it wasnt. 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. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. 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. "Think of how many women would have stood by. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. 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. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. One day, the two employees were in the break room and got to talking about the news of the day a massive bank heist that just occurred in Florida by someone at their company.