I wish them all a happy life and that's about it. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. In real life: True. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. He flew in an ultra-light plane. As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. 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. 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. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. Cool, I say. . It was the first Saturday in October. Called Masterminds, the 2016 film stars Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson. 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. The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Kelly was no criminal. . When Chambers and the two Erics were done loading the stolen millions into barrels, they abandoned the van in the woods. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. We got this guy named Bruno. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. They cursed. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. At first, I just blended in with the tourists and picked up a few translation books, Ghantt explains. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. But what did that mean? Job Search - Career Portal - Dayforce HCM And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. David thought about it. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? Kelly Loomis Facebook, Instagram & Twitter on PeekYou At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. The name she gave the pup is apropos. Its in the ether. Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. He goes, My name is Bruno. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Kelly drove David to the airport. Thats where they feel comfortable., This piece of information would become critical to his getaway plan. I've got a good woman.". She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Ghantt fled to Mexico. The real story behind the second largest bank heist in history, which After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. 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. 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. I was just going to get the money into the van. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Kelly called David at Loomis; he told her he'd be ready for them with the cash at 6:30 or 7 p.m. Alone in the building, David was trying to finish loading cash from the vault into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van belonging to Loomis. Before long, the tales of high living by Chambers and his now former wife, Michelle, led the thieves to be labeled either the "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" or "The gang that couldn't steal straight." They ditched the Loomis van, then drove the cash-heavy Budget van to Steve's mobile home in Lincoln County, where his wife, Michele, waited with a calculator and rubber bands. And going to see the Mayan ruins. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. In real life: False. Though David had said earlier he thought there was $15 million in the vault, the sight of that much cash held them spellbound. Michelle, meanwhile, purchased new breasts for herself, along with a $43,000 diamond ring and a new convertible BMW Z3. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. Some received probation for money laundering, many others did hard time. I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. That October, the Chamberses' bank accounts ballooned. Our Benefits. Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. The figures can be astounding. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. It was unclear whether anyone will get that money, authorities said. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. Visit us at Loomis.us. Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. He figured Tammy wouldn't go for it, and though his marriage had been troubled, he wasn't certain he wanted to leave her. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Masterminds (2016 film) - Wikipedia 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. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Theres less security. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. By . Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Figure in Loomis Heist Gets Prison | AP News The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. There was, however, one problem with his plan. I did every touristy thing you could possibly do while I was down there. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. 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. The money was heavy. He was also a former FBI informant who had tipped the bureau off to a planned robbery of a Loomis Fargo armored truck that never came to fruition. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. "I wanted to be more like my mom and dad were.". (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. . Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. 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. Ghantt knew Chambers as Steve, but didnt find out that his last name was Chambers until the arrests were made. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Still, she wasn't happy. DUMB & - The Washington Post In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. Then, I started loading the van., Money, when bound in bulk and stacked in canvas bags, is heavier than you might expect. In real life: False. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery - Wikipedia Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. Yes, happy. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie? Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. "He was in tears. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. 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. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving.