Kelly Campbell. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. . 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. The events that led to the Loomis Fargo heist started with Ghantt entering a relationship with fellow employee Kelly Campbell. Watch Live: Closing arguments underway in double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Ex-Georgia star Jalen Carter was racing in deadly crash, arrest warrants allege, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Scott Ghantt. Answer It is based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina, which was the subject of the 2016 American comedy film Masterminds. #inline-recirc-item--id-91a2c54e-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { David Ghantt struck up a friendship with Kelly Campbell, a coworker who saw eye to eye with him. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt . Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Down in Jacksonville, a . Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. 2023 Cox Media Group. 25 Feb/23. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. It was here that the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. 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. What the men didnt know was that the FBI was listening to their phone call. The Gaston Gazette interviewed Ghantt, whos now in his late 40s and living as a free man in Florida. However, he would leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. Surveillance tapes and photographs showed a man who the FBI believes is Ghantt taking bags of money and putting them onto a cart in the vault at Loomis, Fargo's offices in Charlotte. To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the Super Heists on CNBC on Monday at 10 p.m. ET/PT. He attended the big Los Angeles premiere and enjoyed being a part of it. .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { "I was dumb," Ghantt said Wednesday, the eve before the movie hits screens nationwide. 2021 museumfacts.co.uk | All rights reserved. Chaque jour, c'est la mme routine : au volant de son camion blind, il transporte des millions de dollars qui ne lui appartiennent pas. Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville, Florida is a popular destination. I don't want to be mean, but that's probably the dumbest thing they could do. David Ghantt : Oh, Rio, yeah, yeah. From the start, David Ghatt was considered to be a prime suspect. Ghantt, who by then was long out of prison, served as a consultant. Now they only had to track down Ghantt and his accomplices. Ghantt:It's kid-friendly, it's family-friendly (the movie is rated PG-13). Elizabeth Holmes has second child, seeks to delay prison Though she agreed to cooperate with the government when she pleaded guilty to bank larceny and money laundering in August 1998, Michele Chambers didn't tell the FBI she still had the ring until December, when she turned it in. The main players had time to conspicuously spend some of their money and, in the case of David Scott Ghantt, the Loomis Fargo employee who removed the money from the vault, flee to Mexico. The police, in turn, called the FBI since 95% of the money handled at the facility was owned by banks. While they had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, Chambers had no intention of following those rules. They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. Next, he went to the managers office and took out the tapes from two security cameras. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. David Ghantt: Oh, God! Kelly : No, Rio. On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. The FBI says Chambers hired a hit man to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four . Accompanying her . LRM had an exclusive phone . CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. Its a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I went down and talked to them, got to meet Zach Galifianakis and the director, Ghantt said. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. 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 helps steal $17 million from Loomis Fargo mostly due to his love for Kelly Campbell, but the leader of the operation, Steve Chambers, wants to get rid of David for being a liability. David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. The reason for this was because, after the Loomis Fargo heist, the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency. The picture, which is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey, stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and The FBI continues to search for a missing $2 million from the theft. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily . Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. 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 . It was committed by David Ghantt and the heist subsequently inspired the comedy movie Masterminds. That movie, Masterminds was filmed in 2014. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed They soon realised that their joke was not a far-fetched idea. Most people are going to forgive you. Then Campbell turned his attention to her boyfriend. DePriest talked to employees at the hotel where Ghantt had stayed under the name James T. Kelley and claiming to be an oilrigger on vacation. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. Their relationship continued after she left the company. So he and some friends decided at the end of his Oct. 4 shift he would load a company van with more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drive away. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Whisler said he didn't think those factors should result in a reduced sentence. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. The Chambers traded in their trailer for a $635,000 mansion in Cramer Mountain - bought with mostly $20 . David Ghantt: [after the loaded gun in the back of his trousers goes off] Oh, that burns! Two days later, the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van. More than 2 million dollars are still missing to this day. It was the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, and it wasnt solved right away. Ghantt fled to Mexico. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. He misses Tonys Ice Cream in Gastonia, and he discusses how he tells employers about his criminal history. Ghantt went on to explain that he left for his flight to Mexico with about $25,000, and that two or three deliveries of extra money was made to him by the man Chambers would pay to kill him. Ultimately, the sum amounted to $17 million. SPORTS. 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. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . However, they didnt heed their own advice. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Kelly Jane Campbell, a former Loomis . After loading the massive cache of loot into the armored truck, Ghantt set the time lock on the vault, which locked the door for days unless the employees drilled through the lock. She also . . He then took the security tapes and sped off in his getaway van. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. 3 million in cash from the Charlotte, North Carolina . An armored car driver suspected of taking $17 million from his company's vault has been captured in Mexico after a manhunt of nearly five months. I hope everyone has moved on. The tapes showed Ghantt removing cash cubes and loading them into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. All rights reserved. Six other people also were arrested, including a couple who suddenly moved from a trailer to a $635,000 house. Three of the 21 defendants in the case haven't been sentenced. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. They both made jokes about their work and how they would rather rob the place than continue with their underpaid job. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case.. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. David Ghantt was the Treasury Supervisor for Loomis Armored Cars, Fargo & Co. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. Ghantt believed the new employee would make a good replacement for his wife, but the feelings were not necessarily reciprocated. Ghantt stole $17 million from the Loomis vault at work. But Ghantt, who served as an unpaid consultant to the movie and attended the big Los Angeles premiere earlier in the week, has no such reservations. THE THIEVES WHO COULDN'T COPE WITH $17 MILLION. Friends of Campbell had also begun spending large amounts of cash. The FBI believed that David Ghatt was in danger because Chambers wanted to kill him using a hitman named Michael McKinney. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, David Ghantt was the mastermind behind the 3rd largest bank robbery in U.S. history. There, lessons of , "The Wall Street Journal just so happened to have a supportive op-ed ready to publish within hours of the meeting. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and . Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. display: none; David Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. In his hurry, Ghantt had simply overlooked the third security camera. 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. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. When Ghantt called Campbell asking for more money, a plan was set in motion to take him out. Since he was the only employee unaccounted for the following day, they checked the tapes for clues. 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. That was the most painful truth to come to. Ghantt and seven others eventually pleaded guilty in federal court to charges . I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it," Ghantt said. Campbell, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her husband. I wanted to get as far away as I could. WSOC TV facebook feed(Opens a new window), Part 1: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, ALSO READ: Trio charged following takeover-style bank robbery in South End, sources say, ALSO READ: Police: Suspect arrested in Rock Hill following bank robbery in northwest Charlotte, ALSO READ: Business owner says more than $100K in checks stolen, then forged and deposited, 13-year-old girl killed in crash involving tractor-trailer on I-485 in west Charlotte, police say, Tattooed arm of missing man found inside shark caught by fishermen, Shanquella Robinson case needing high-level diplomatic intervention, attorney says, Wells Fargo to close Charlotte-area branch, two others in NC in consolidation move, Murdaugh Trial, Day 27: Jury visits crime scene before closings at trial, WSOC - TV Public File Contact / Program Director, WAXN - TV Public File Contact / Program Director. Please subscribe to keep reading. 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. But when he's convinced by his work crush, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and her accomplices to join in a far-fetched plan to rob a bank vault, David soon throws everything on the line for love, money, and a . "I've moved on with my life," he said Tuesday. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, and their friends stole an astonishing $17.3 million. 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. What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads } When the FBI recorded a phone call from Ghantt in Mexico, the final connection was made. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Guillermo dos Santos Coelho. This company managed the transportation of large amounts of money between banks in North Carolina. Michele Chambers' sentence was two months longer than that given to David Scott Ghantt, the Loomis employee who removed the money from the company vault on Oct. 4, 1997. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. $17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. In addition, he also rented Mike his own apartment, paid him $400/weekly and bought him a gun. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. This company employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Ghantt was charged in connection with the robbery reported Oct. 5 at Loomis, Fargo & Co. After years of working hard, the realisation hit him that he was working 75-80 hrs a week for $8.15 an hour which left him feeling unhappy. David Scott Ghantt, 28, was arrested Sunday on an island off the Mexican coast, near the resort city of Cozumel, FBI spokesman William Perry said today. Ultimately, even though the film is a slightly exaggerated version of the actual events, it is not far from reality. The Gaston Gazette spoke with Ghantt, who is now in his late 40s and lives in Florida as a free man. As Ghantt and seven others await hearings on charges from the October theft, authorities still have a big unanswered question: Where's most of the money? 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. 5 min read. However, he was released for good behavior after serving only five of them. She's a great speaker and a great writer. 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. Probably very egotistical of me, I though yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. David Ghantt was sentenced to seven years in prison and Steven Chambers was sentenced to 11. 2 million dollars are still missing to this day to a $ mansion... 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