His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. The figures can be astounding. Breakdown by congressional district, States' push to define sex decried as erasing trans people, North Carolina Supreme Court hears felony voting rights case, North Carolina House GOP modifies rules on veto overrides, N. Carolina speaker, lawmaker uninjured after SUV rammed, UPS chooses Onslow County site for expansion, EPA orders 'pause' of derailment contaminated waste removal, My Sisters House: helping women in cycle of incarceration, Talent cycle keeps rolling for East boys basketball program, Carteret County Board of Education adopts resolution calling for flexibility in school calendar law, Emerald Isle to have public comment period on 2023-24 budget Tuesday night, Jury quickly finds Murdaugh guilty of murder of wife, son, After their genitals were cut, some women search for healing, N. 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Carolina House GOP again modifies rules on veto overrides, Murdoch says some Fox hosts 'endorsed' false election claims, Havelock officials warn public about alligator near Walmart, Cape Carteret buys new utility vehicle to aid in picking up litter, New taxi, shuttle business seeks license to operate in Morehead City, Report: Navy ships face growing maintenance delays, costs, Fisheries division to survey for-hire watermen, National Enquirer, ensnared in catch-and-kill is sold. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The friend was Steve Chambers, and Kelly said he knew his way around the world of crime. "But you can still have a cigarette.". Heist! Libraries without that edition should consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel. she asked. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. She had attitude. A former FBI agent 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. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. Thank you so much. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. "About fourteen or fifteen million dollars," he said. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. Accompanying her was Steve Chambers, who, though unemployed, had recently moved . How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. "Just think about it," she said. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. In the grand scheme of things, the prison sentence for stealing $20 million wouldn't be much worse than for stealing just $500,000 maybe a few extra years behind bars. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". The supervisor liked him and gave him the job. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. What purpose does that serve other than to denigrate that person into abject poverty?. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. Spunk. How he felt shorted by life. The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. When they hung up, she called his pager and left the code 1-4-3, beeper-speak for "I love you," based on the number of letters in each word. He knew his mother would be traumatized, shocked, and appalled. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing Its said the current owner now has it in storage in Phoenix, Arizona. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? 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. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or It all seemed unfair. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. 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.. of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or 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.. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Spunk. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. As an adult, he preferred Shakespeare, Tom Clancy, and any book he could find about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. (LogOut/ There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. The Charlotte area's economy was booming all around him, and he felt passed over. He was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. 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. 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.. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats The $17 million was stolen last Oct. 4 from the armored-car company's vault in Charlotte. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. Campbell led Ghantt to think she loved him and they would flee to Mexico together, but she actually wanted to make a better life for herself in the U.S. With the plan in place, Ghantt sent a newly hired employee he had been assigned to train home early (reportedly, at 6 p.m.) and then proceeded to load a little more than $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in$20 bills) into the back of a company van. 2023 Cox Media Group. Afterward, everything became comical. she asked again. VERDICT The first edition of this work was published in 2002. Moving the money into the van quickly proved an onerous task. 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. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. Ms. Campbell worked at Loomis for 11 months, leaving in November 1996, according to court papers. 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. You can garnish wages. Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. So the original gang was all totally shocked, Wydra said. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. 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. He said at first, they were very proud of what they had been able to do. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. 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. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. 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 had joined the army and earned an honorable discharge, but because of defense-industry cutbacks he hadn't been able to find a good job for himself. His collection case closes in two years. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. them. 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. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. 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. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. Thirty years! They had to be extremely careful not to tip off the group, as they could lose potential conspirators or more information important to a conviction. Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years. At that point, Kelly and David had known each other for two years. All of the co-defendants were arrested the next day, about six months after the heist. It just happened to fall on my desk.. To visit friends.". Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. These cookies do not store any personal information. That was taking the long view. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. The actual crime itself required none of Hollywood's imagination. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. We are happy to work with other website publishers. After marrying Tammy in 1992, he worked fueling airplanes at the airport in Hilton Head, South Carolina. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. 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. 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. Diamant, a journalist who reported on the case at the time, goes into meticulous detail on how the heist was pulled off and its aftermath. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. You can have your whole career and not have a case like that. We went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, former FBI agent John Wydra said. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. 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. "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. " LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. 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. Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers (and his wifes) activities, but it was not until the FBIrecorded a phone callfrom Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. But with Kelly's new idea on the table, several dark realities converged on him. The world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? But things didnt quite work out that way. 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. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) But they'd stayed in touch, and now they were poised to attempt a crime like almost no other. 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. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. NASCAR. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. Unexplained Mysteries - owned by Aliens since 2011. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. 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. So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. What kind of surprised me is how much the car smelled like money, like if you ever hold money up to your nose it has a distinct smell, Wydra said. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. 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. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. One number is working in Campbells favor. David told Kelly they would have to control themselves and not spend the money too quickly, because the FBI could electronically trace a suspect's recent spending activity through bank papers, credit card records, and land transactions. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. 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 . People dont seem to understand human nature. In Florida, a Loomis Fargo employee had pulled a gun on his coworkers and gotten away with $18 million, a move that FBI agents theorize Ghantt, Campbell and other employees all sat around talking about - and what they would do with that amount of money - for a while. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also. It's still the hot topic . A parrot tattoo on her right ankle. 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. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . He decided at that moment that if Kelly called again, he would go for it. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. He wanted to leave his wife for her, and Kelly, who also was married, let him think she wanted the same. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. "For the first year after a crime," he told her, "they're all over you, with six to ten agents. uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. 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. The towns booming construction industry attracts workers from around the country. In Gastonia, David would run into high-school classmates who had never struck him as especially smart. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. Former Loomis employee David Scott Ghantt is accused of stealing the money. When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. One number is working in Campbells favor. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. Money. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. His collection case closes in two years. There are many robberies registered in the history of America, but the Loomis Fargo Robbery is known to be the second largest robbery in the United States. "Are you serious?" "Don't back out on us. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy aToyota Siennaminivanin two cash installments. Prosecutors say a vault. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. (LogOut/ If the American Dream involved being better off as adults than your parents were, David was experiencing a version of the American Nightmare. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. 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. When did you conclude Yeah, Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. 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. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Winds light and variable. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. Her case closes in 2025. At about 6:40 p.m., he went back inside. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember why you were elected! He even had to watch what he bought at the grocery store. 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. I appreciate your kind words! "I'll need help moving the money, getting a new ID, and leaving the country," he told her. 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Some of that money is just gone. The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.99. He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. He also stole both existing sets of vault keys and hurried into the manager's office, where three TV security screens and two VCRs were visible. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime.