Change). Since then, there have been numerous articles, books, documentaries and even a movie about this gang -- the gang that couldnt shoot straight. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. In the end, the FBI was able to capture the original gang in five months, snaring 21 individuals for their participation in the crime. LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. NASCAR. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later 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. Michelle Chambers received a few more months than Ghantt, because she had violated several bond conditions. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. Low 46F. It, too, has changed hands several times. "About fourteen or fifteen million dollars," he said. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. When some friends stole a stop sign from a busy intersection, David made them put it back. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. 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. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. Kelly called, using David's own cell phone, to ask where he was already, because she and the others were waiting outside for him. It has a certain feel, a smell and weight to it. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. In the parking lot, David sat in his pickup truck smoking a cigarette and waving good-bye as the trainee drove home. 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. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. Their most important conversation occurred one afternoon in August 1997 after Kelly paged him at work. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. she asked. She sounded incredulous. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. 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. Even with several vehicles, they underestimated how much space they would need and they had to leave $3 million behind. That way, outsiders couldn't see money being loaded. In 1994, they moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where they had grown up, and David took a job driving a forklift. "Are you serious?" This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. David got a kick out of her. Unexplained Mysteries - owned by Aliens since 2011. 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. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. They also found several stacks of money with Loomis bands still attached throughout all the homes searched. Expanded two-hour true crime story about the 1997 Loomis-Fargo armored car heist in North Carolina and the serio-comic fate of its bumbling underdog perpetra. We dont have the manpower to track all that (restitution) money down I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs., Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it,, You can garnish wages. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. 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. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. She had attitude. Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Things,Cool Interesting stuff has been online since early 2011. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Afterward, everything became comical. Former FBI agent John Wydra, 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. 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. 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. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. 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. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. (LogOut/ Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to. The robbery was committed by David Scott Ghantt who was the vault supervisor and accomplices Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers, Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobies, and other four members. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. The next day, before Mike was able to leave the country, the FBI arrested him in his hotel room. You Save 23%. 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. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. "Everything's gonna be all right," she told him. 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. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth.. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. David and the trainee left the warehouse. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. 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. Anybody who gets caught up in the system is getting chewed up by it, the now-retired Gronquist told the Observer. 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. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Another time, the day after a Christmas in the late 1980s, David and some friends planted all the discarded Christmas trees from the area in one neighbor's front yard. 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. Investigators also found Ghantts pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. He waffled on the heist idea three or four times from late August to mid-September. It's still the hot topic . They hadn't slept together or even fooled around much, but he was ready to commit. But he wasn't finished. be blocked or permanently banned without warning. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. Of course, this would all be a radical departure for him, and thoughts of his wife and parents did give him pause. They had met in December 1995 on one of her first days at Loomis. And after two years, the case is just a file. In preparation for what lay ahead, David had backed an unmarked company Ford Econoline van near the vault entrance and opened the van's back door. Her case closes in 2025. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. His collection case closes in two years. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. 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. 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. 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.
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