We got this guy named Bruno. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. WebCampbell 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 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. WebHolding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo All of the defendants except for one pleaded guilty and accepted their sentences. Once I start something, Im going to the end., As for how he felt in the moment, he says, Imagine me and you went on an airplane. By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. wydd radio pittsburgh; dumb military bases hilary farr design assistant 9, Juin, 2022 Axios Charlotte is a local news initiative. October 26, 1999. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. 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. Thirteen friends and family members were also charged with money laundering, as they had helped Ghantt, Chambers, Campbell, and the others deposit money illegally. Who was the FBI agent in the movie Masterminds? Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. His new life in Mexico had begun. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. WebThis real-life . The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. It happened on October 4, a Saturday. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. 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. So it was weird when during the middle of the week, there were these very clean-cut, very Midwestern looking, obviously American guys in the town. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Ghantt was caught on videotape loading large amounts of cash into a truck. 7 Is the movie Masterminds based on a true story? The next morning, Loomis Fargo employees were unable to open the vault. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. In the film, Jason Sudeikis plays a sadistic assassin hired to knock off Ghantt, who befriends him. Jump to navigation Jump to search. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. Having only brought $50,000 in cash, however, Ghantt soon found himself short on funds. On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Too bad it was so poorly planned. WebTwo days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. All rights reserved. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. Campbell made her way back to Charlotte (Ghantt was told by Chambers to head to Atlanta and catch a flight from there), where the money had since been moved into barrels and into another van. Ghantt was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 02:50. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. I loved it. While making only eight dollars an hour in his role as supervisor, Ghantt decided it was time to do something: I was unhappy with my life. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. Ten days later, the group was indicted for bank larceny and money laundering. Campbell and Chambers made themselves easy to catch, what with their lavish spending. Chambers served 11 years before being released. In 1997, six men pulled off what remains the biggest cash heist in the history of the United States. I studied up on the FBI. 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. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. It was over. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with. Gronquist said. On July 10, Jon Daly joined the cast of the film to play an FBI agent. Ghantt, meanwhile, was losing his patience and starting to make threats. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened 1997. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. That suspicion was immediately confirmed by a quick glance at the security camera footage that showed Ghantt doing a little dance after loading all the cash into the van. ];Kelly Jane Campbell [Misc. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell, and some other notable parties were arrested in Charlotte. Unfortunately, he failed to disable the third camera. Im a very deliberate person. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. Exciting. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! One of the best ways to learn more about U.S. history is to make sure youre taking history classes. David Ghantt was the vault supervisor for Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored cars, which managed the transportation of large sums of cash between banks in North Carolina. You know Loomis because of their armored cash vehicles, and when they acquired Wells Fargo Armored, turned into Loomis, Fargo & Co. Ghantt, who had been with the bank since 1994, was promoted from driver to vault supervisor in 1997, where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt mixed up in the plans for the heist after she left Loomis. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Soon everyone would know about the arrests in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist. Without question, 1997's Loomis Fargo robbery has a home in it. 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.. Chambers got 11 years. Masterminds is a 2016 American comedy film based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. According to an Observer report, this was seven times larger than their trailer. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. Items included a velvet Elvis painting, 1998 BMW, 17-foot motorboat and Harley Davidson. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice.
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