Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. 2023 Cox Media Group. 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Marine Fisheries Commission advocates for water quality, North Carolina the only state allowing unnecessary killing of sea turtles, 'Pagan' bike gang leader in N. Carolina sentenced to prison, Deputy cleared in shooting death of Gloucester woman, Beaufort amends charter to allow four-year mayoral term. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. Some of that money is just gone. Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. 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. The principals here are David Ghantt, a driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co.; Kelly Campbell, the woman Ghantt had a crush on, and who convinced him to commit the crime; and Steve and Michele Chambers. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.'. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. "Everything's gonna be all right," she told him. "Are you serious?" Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. He and his wife, Michele, moved from theirmobile homeinLincoln Countyto a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section ofCramerton. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Temptation to do something that you think you normally wouldnt do can change a lot of minds when its that kind of cash, and thats what it was., (WATCH BELOW: VIDEO: The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later). Living with his wife, Tammy, in a mobile home, he had longed for the middle-class lifestyle of his childhood that had come to seem luxurious, a pipe dream for him now. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. You Save 23%. It was 2:00 p.m. on October 4, 1997, and tension was building between two planners of what would rank high among the largest heists in United States history. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. 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. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. She had attitude. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. David knew this was important from having followed the recent news about a Florida man who had brazenly committed the biggest heist from an armored-car company in United States history, a loner named Philip Noel Johnson, who also had worked for Loomis. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Spunk. Sunny. 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. Four-wheeling. 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. 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. Enforcement of this policy is at the To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. There was no reason to leave anything, he felt. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . He deserved better. personal/abusive/condescending attacks on other users or goading The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. Spunk. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. I dont know if Steve would have done it himself, but he definitely was capable of buying someone to do it for him and I think that was going to happen if we didnt step in and arrest Ghantt, Wydra said. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. They succeeded in removing $17 million from the safe. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. More calls between the two men, and also between Steve and Kelly Campbell, made it clear that the group was starting to turn on David Ghantt. 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. 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.. NASCAR. she asked. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.99. But if you did, youll never forget it. them. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. He had since served time in prison for the crime and told our sister station WSOC-TV Channel 9s Glenn Counts he learned a valuable lesson while behind bars. Except for the kiss in the pickup truck a few weeks before the heist, Kelly had kept things platonic. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. 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. This was several years before the advent of smartphones and the post-9/11 increase in federal surveillance of electronic communications, and public knowledge about this tracking was less widespread. The gang made numerous mistakes. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). I think if you remember some of her early photographic opportunities, shall we put it that way, she was sort of laughing, not seeming to take it seriously.. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. "What would it take to convince you to do it?" The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. 2023 Cox Media Group. 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 . 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. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. They also bought aBMW Z3with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 statue of aNative American. The participants in the heist also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries. She had attitude. Kelly Campbell, who one day visited a Toyota dealership to purchase a minivan with twenty-dollar bills. And once he started, he didn't stop with one cartful. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. The plan was still on, but David remained steamed. Im married, I got one girl, shes 15 going on 30. Twenty years ago this Wednesday, a small group of people stole $17 million in cash from the main vault of a Loomis Fargo & Co. armored-car warehouse in west Charlotte. "its a great readsuspenseful, often funny, just the thing for those wondering what it might feel like to have, as these hapless, small-town criminals did, literally too darn much cash lying around. " The reason David didn't know Steve's last name was so they couldn't identify each other to the police or FBI, should cops or G-men ever enter the picture. A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. You can garnish wages. Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. Its attracted workers like Ghantt. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. He had since held one low-paying job after another. He added that he would be able to send the trainee home at about 6:00 p.m. and would then need about an hour to load the money from carts, shelves, and the floor into a Loomis company van. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. While David Ghantt trusted Steve Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. He knew his mother would be traumatized, shocked, and appalled. The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. He loves his motorcycle and enjoys going fishing and, while hes sorry for the past, hes not ashamed to talk about it. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. He hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Ghantt said he believes in redemption, and that his mistake 25 years ago brought him all the things that are important in his life today. You can seize property. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. To visit friends.". Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. The only other employee with him on this day was a trainee. 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. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. 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. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when the heat was off, Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. 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. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! Unexplained Mysteries - owned by Aliens since 2011. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. But with Kelly's new idea on the table, several dark realities converged on him.
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