I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Cool, I say. I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans. . 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' He had an endearing smile, a beautiful wife and two children. Most people are going to forgive you. Masterminds which opens nationwide today (though youd be hard pressed to know that given the decided lack of promotion) is proof again that all the talent in the world cannot salvage a bad script, and not even a good screenwriter can make up for terrible performances. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. And I said, Hey, man, I got this. Username. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. As it turned out, Ghantt was zipping up his scuba suit in Mexico. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. David complained it wasn't enough. . The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Still, she wasn't happy. ", "Even then . On Oct. 7, 1997, two FBI agents arrived at Kelly Campbell's home after two Loomis employees had told agents she and David had once dated. 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. Like David, Kelly was frustrated with her marriage. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. 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. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. David thought about it. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. Ghantt and one other employee were the last to leave. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. Kelly Campbell arrested 11) Finally, the FBI successfully tracked down Ghantt and arrested him at Playa del Carmen. And then I could hear her laughing. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. I mean, it was dark, Ghantt explains. 0 Comments Get local news delivered to your inbox! So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. Website. Things started to go south the night of the robbery. But being the vault supervisor at Loomis Fargo had one perk -- exposure to tons of cash. He loves his motorcycle and enjoys going fishing and, while hes sorry for the past, hes not ashamed to talk about it. 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. ALSO READ: Suspect from south Charlotte bank robbery found, CMPD says. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. That was pretty awesome., It felt like a dream vacation until he started running out of money. Theres less security. Michele received the best gift of the night. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. They discussed it further, and Campbell asked him when they should do it. One of them tapped him on the back. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. All of the defendants are out of prison -- the longest sentence was 11 years. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. The bash had a Cinderella theme, with a three-tiered cake that looked like a castle. He learned to parachute. Was the temptation too much? Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. Was that really what it was about? But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. They bought a BMW roadster. . 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. Things were spiraling fast. David Ghantt was just an average Joe with an average low-wage job. 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. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. 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. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. In December, agents got the tie-in they were looking for: Kelly Campbell had bought a $30,000 Toyota minivan with cash and registered it to one of Steve Chambers's aliases. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. 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. He para-sailed, power-skied and scuba-dived. In early December, Steve and Michele invited relatives to their daughter's sixth birthday party. They didnt expect it.. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. For his part, Ghantt was now officially on his way to Mexico, his future stretched out before him. It affects everybody different. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' . Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. Im a very deliberate person. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Ive never taken offense to anything like that, he tells me. He quickly found out when you have money, you just have different problems, Wydra said. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. 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. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' In the meantime, the FBI was closing in looking to bust a total of 21 suspected accomplices. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. He didnt even really question me. My knee-jerk reaction was to be angry, and then the sarcastic ass side of me started laughing about it, Ghantt said. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. We got this guy named Bruno. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. Directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey, the film stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Jason Sudeikis.. Theres no management around. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Kelly said she had reason to believe Steve might be able to pull off a heist. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. Before David left for the airport, he had handed Scott an eight-inch key ring. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. "I missed my family. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. I had a four-hour layover there, and then from New Orleans to Cancun.. Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. Ghantt spent a solid hour moving what ended up being 2,700 pounds of cash more than an actual ton into an unmarked company van. Or that it was an inheritance. Steve bought a truck, a Rolex and a motorboat. His name was Corey. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) The Associated Press, BY MICHAEL GORDON, The Charlotte Observer. 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