He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Where was Ghantt? And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. But things didnt quite work out that way. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. The gang made numerous mistakes. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day., ALSO READ: Man released from jail, accused of robbing banks while wearing electronic monitor, police say. "She just called me up on the phone and said, 'Hey, let's meet one day after work.' And after two years, you're just a file." But as he later recalled to the media, as soon as he stepped through those big-box doors, he realized he was flush with cash, and he didnt need to shop at Walmart ever again. And I was thinking about just showing up there. www.loomis.com. 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. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. 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. I was just going to get the money into the van. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. and "I'm rich!". Each week, Michele deposited thousands of dollars in cash. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. One of them tapped him on the back. Of course the most famous thing inside the home was a velvet Elvis portrait. The robbers went on a huge spending spree, buying a massive home, artworks, big-screen TVs, expensive cars, pickup trucks, minivans, two boats, six motorcycles and several tanning beds. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. "I missed my family. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. Eric watched. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' About six months before the Charlotte theft, on March 29, a total of $18.8 million was taken from Loomis, Fargo in Jacksonville, Fla., in what was believed to be the largest heist in U.S.. Nosotros, Yahoo, somos parte de la familia de marcas de Yahoo. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. "I thought he was goofing around.". It was the first Saturday in October. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. The property has changed hands several times since then. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. 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. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. Cool, I say. 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. An officer rang the doorbell. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. They placed a bust of Caesar in the dining room. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. Back in North Carolina, Ghantts former accomplices were living high on the hog. 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. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of "Saturday Night Live's" biggest current and former stars, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Some of that money is just gone. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. Im married, I got one girl, shes 15 going on 30. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Campbell and her husband had always been just scraping by, however in the weeks following the robbery, the two seemed to have more money than they've ever had. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. He rewarded Robert with $3,000 and vowed never to meet McKinney alone. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. We got this guy named Bruno. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. Just head on out. And so, he did. Im a very deliberate person. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. The mystery 1-4-3 caller had been Kelly, though agents didn't know it yet. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. 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. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. 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. Maura Healey unveiled a proposed $55.5 billion state budget Wednesday, a plan that offers insight into some of the Democrats spending priorities during her first year as governor. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist (No Ratings Yet) . . "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. He went deep-sea fishing. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Theres barely a laugh in the entire film, which looks like it was shot entirely in one take while the actors were still working out their characters. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case.. It changes you. One number is working in Campbells favor. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. The Chambers home is now gated, which means Channel 9 crews cant drive up to it like we used to. Not every agent has a case like that, he said. "It wasn't me, it was Steve," she says she told him. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. "I" has one letter. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. What made her do it? But in November, money ran low. Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. Theres no management around. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. 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. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Chambers and Campbell were waiting for him in the Loomis Fargo parking lot, both in separate vehicles. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. He flew in an ultra-light plane. He gave the rest to Kelly. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. . And so, he told her, Google my name. It just happened to fall on my desk.. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? Mine did. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. 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.. Or does it sit in an offshore account, waiting for a prison sentence to end? At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. 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. He loves his motorcycle and enjoys going fishing and, while hes sorry for the past, hes not ashamed to talk about it. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. . But first they wanted to know if it was a robbery or a robbery-homicide. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. The FBI continues to search for a missing $2 million from the theft. He'd stay up all night, boosted by coffee, waiting for the sunrise over the ocean. I didnt pick the heist team. But agents weren't ready to arrest Kelly and Steve. Things were spiraling fast. 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. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. His collection case closes in two years. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Exciting. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. 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. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. There was, however, one problem with his plan. FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. In addition to their extravagant spending, Michelle Chambers made the mistake of loudly asking a bank teller how much cash she could deposit in her account without it being reported to the feds, and then said, its not drug money.. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville is a popular destination. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. Name. "He was in tears. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. . We got to the end of the day, and he was acting like he wanted to linger. 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. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. "That would be living on the run, and I didn't want my kids to live that way. ', "He asked me if I'd mind holding some money for him. Then another. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Kelly was lying. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Theyre meant to be trailer-park trash, but they come off as character experiments on a bad night at the Groundlings. 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. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' You can garnish wages. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? David was excited, jabbering about their future together. That day, FBI agents also would arrest Scott Grant and Eric Payne, who had spent his share of the money on a motorcycle and breast implants for his wife and two sisters. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. October was "a blast," he said. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. ", "I said, 'If you drive a truck, you're always in a financial bind. ". (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP), Baltimore to Pay $6M in Latest Police Misconduct Settlement, Australia Family Hurt in Helicopter Crash Suing Vegas Firm, Massachusetts Governor Unveils Proposed $55.5B State Budget. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. She laughed for like 45 minutes. This machine is the property of Loomis. People dont seem to understand human nature. 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. By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 30, 2016 |. Find 145 people named Kelly Loomis along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. ". He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. His part, Ghantt explains was in the dining room Im like can..., they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $ 3 million behind able! Getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business the next day, Kelly McKinney. 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