You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. One number is working in Campbells favor. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. If it didn't work out, he could return to the United States later with a new identity. Prosecutors say a vault. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Heist! Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. 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. In Gastonia, David would run into high-school classmates who had never struck him as especially smart. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or "I don't have time to mess with you. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Outside of the building, Ghantt met up with Campbell, Chambers, and others who were involved in the plot, and drove off to a printing business called Reynolds & Reynolds in northwest Charlotte. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. The next day, before Mike was able to leave the country, the FBI arrested him in his hotel room. Thank you! The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. Stealing from Loomis Fargo could make him rich, if he got away with it. NASCAR. The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. Some of that money is just gone. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft . Steve was a serious guy? Its in the ether. Chambers had told Campbell to do whatever she needed to do to get Ghantt to commit the robbery. Then they returned it. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Things,Cool Interesting stuff has been online since early 2011. ALSO READ: 14-year-old boy robbed at gunpoint while waiting for bus in east. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. 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. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. The corporation handled armored transportation, ATM maintenance and other cash handling services, and had millions of currency stashed in the vault of the North Carolina branch. Booklist "Librariesshould consider purchasing this entertaining and lightly edited version, which reads like a fast-paced novel." What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville is a popular destination. The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. While Ghantt trusted Chambers enough to leave his cut behind, Chambers had other plans. Thirty years! You have permission to edit this article. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. 2023 Cox Media Group. 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. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. He had since held one low-paying job after another. David got a kick out of her. Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? They succeeded in removing $17 million from the safe. He couldn't understand the gap, why he wasn't more successful, why he couldn't at least match the financial stability of his father, who earned a comfortable salary driving a truck. As an adult, he preferred Shakespeare, Tom Clancy, and any book he could find about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 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 world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. - Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. 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. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. But that only tells part of the story. 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. Ms. Campbell worked at Loomis for 11 months, leaving in November 1996, according to court papers. He allegedly hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. 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. Charlotte Observer"more than a crime story, and one that's worth reading." It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. 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. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. 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. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. 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. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. How did they get away with stealing more than $17 million? Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. 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.. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. The unsolved crime mystery of Marilyn Sheppard. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. 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 . Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. It's still the hot topic . Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. That way, outsiders couldn't see money being loaded. The October 4 shift was lasting longer than expected, due to delays involving pickups and deliveries. It wasn't how much you stole that mattered most; it was that you had stolen in the first place. Driving away, he said he felt a mix of fear, confidence and excitement that he outsmarted the FBI. A few of the Loomis restitution cases have already been closed either because the amount was paid in full or because the 20-year clock wound down. RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. Her case closes in 2025. You can seize property. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Learning from this error, David planned to leave the stolen money behind with his coconspirators while he fled to Mexico. But after one visit, she asked a teller How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds? followed by Dont worry, it is notdrug money, the bank filled out asuspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. Have a youtube channel or website similar? But if you did, youll never forget it. He ejected the two VCR tapes that he knew had recorded him stealing the money, took them, and prepared to leave. She will never get beyond the debt. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving. 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. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. She will never get beyond the debt. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. You can garnish wages. - 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. You can garnish wages. He says the Loomis case shows how the criminal justice system and the courts treat lower-income people differently. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. 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. 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. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. A more immediate need was securing help to move the stolen money to safety the night of the crime. 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. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024.