So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. A customs inspector, asking routine questions of bus passengers, focused her attention on him when his answers reminded her of Tommy Flanagan, the pathological-liar character played by Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live. People dont seem to understand human nature. (LogOut/ These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. Working by himself, Ghantt would commit the robbery and then flee for Mexico, leaving the bulk of the cash with Chambers. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). But you cant get blood from a stone,, Criminals dont usually get high-paying jobs after leaving prison. He knew they were nervous outside waiting for him, but he also knew he wouldn't stop stealing until he had taken everything. ", "I don't need any more friends," she'd shot back. Ghantt went to Mexico leaving the money with his cohorts, thinking that he could get his share back when he needed it. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. VERDICT The first edition of this work was published in 2002. 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. The stated plan was for her to move to Mexico to be with him after the theft. 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.. High around 65F. Most people are going to forgive you. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. Former Loomis employee David Scott Ghantt is accused of stealing the money. Heist! Agents raided safe deposit boxes, where they recovered more than $11 million. They also bought aBMW Z3with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 statue of aNative American. In his youth, his mother had taken him to Sears and JCPenney, but as a man he shopped at Walmart, and while he knew there was nothing wrong with that, he wished he could afford more. The walk-in vault was a fortified gray room, more wide than long, with shelves, cabinets, desks, and multiple pushcarts stocked with shrink-wrapped cash. He also took various measures to change his appearance, such asshaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million.. If it didn't work out, he could return to the United States later with a new identity. He had approached her inside the chain-link fence that surrounded the building and said with a flirty smile, "If you give me a cigarette, I'll be your friend. Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. David knew this was important from having followed the recent news about a Florida man who had brazenly committed the biggest heist from an armored-car company in United States history, a loner named Philip Noel Johnson, who also had worked for Loomis. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. Steve decided to send his cousin, Nathan with money down to Mexico as a ruse, while Mike the bodyguard would follow behind to take care of Ghantt. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. He hired a hitman to take Ghantt out, tying up the ultimate loose end. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or In addition to their extravagant spending, Michelle Chambers made the mistake of loudly asking a bank teller how much cash she could deposit in her account without it being reported to the feds, and then said, its not drug money.. It just happened to fall on my desk.. Sunny. Action News Jax facebook feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax twitter feed(Opens a new window), Action News Jax youtube feed(Opens a new window), JSO K9 escapes kennel, bites three people in Jacksonville neighborhood, To know Nancy was to love Nancy: St. Johns County woman killed in suspected DUI crash, JSO says missing child alert results in deadly drowning, Senator proposes bill giving state emergency jurisdiction over custody of kids with trans parents, Florida woman accused of killing terminally ill husband released from jail. His collection case closes in two years. Now one of the most wanted men in America with the FBI hot on his heels, Ghantt must figure out how to get his money, get away from a hit man, and get even. Moving the money into the van quickly proved an onerous task. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Chambers had told Campbell to do whatever she needed to do to get Ghantt to commit the robbery. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. just generally being a jerk. Ghantt had worked with the branch since 1994, and had been promoted from a driver to the vault supervisor. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. 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.. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a. Loomis has received $978,983.79, according to Sally Butcher, an assistant clerk in the federal courts of the Western District of North Carolina who specializes in criminal debt. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and college football at Georgia Tech . 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. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. But this time on the phone, Kelly wasn't joking. uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. David was supposed to be showing him the ropes of the job, which included cash pickups and deliveries. Their most important conversation occurred one afternoon in August 1997 after Kelly paged him at work. There's just one hitch: Ghantt has entrusted the money to an oddball crew of accomplices who had wooed him into committing this massive theft in the first placeand who, he soon learns, are trying to take him out. Of course, this would all be a radical departure for him, and thoughts of his wife and parents did give him pause. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. Accompanying her was Steve Chambers, who, though unemployed, had recently moved . - 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. That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. He could even be famous, perhaps joining the ranks of legendary master thieves. 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. Four-wheeling. About the worst he had done as a teenager was stealing a construction company's Porta-Jon with a friend, tying it to the back of a pickup truck, and driving around for about fifteen minutes. Asked the purpose of his visit, Johnson had replied, "To visit friends. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP) He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. On the evening ofOctober 4, 1997, the Loomis Fargo & Co branch in Charlotte, North Carolina was in the process of being plundered. The old man me would never survive that, Id have a heart attack.. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. "Don't back out on us. 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. How he felt shorted by life. 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. Then one day, while reviewing his and Tammy's credit card bill, he did some quick math and realized that even if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take thirty years to pay. He is a graduate of Yale and has worked for the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post. Ghantts spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. 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. Growing up, David had been a nice kid, a decent student who was at worst a minor troublemaker and prankster. The defendants received sentences ranging from probation for several relatives to over 11 years in federal prison for Steve Chambers. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. This website uses cookies and some data tracking to improve your experience and serve adverts, We assume you're ok with this, you can opt-out if you wish. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. "But you can still have a cigarette.". 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. 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. David and the trainee left the warehouse. One number is working in Campbells favor. Then 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, Wydra said. We are happy to work with other website publishers. "Just think about it," she said. How many people have walked the red carpet at a movie premiere in a case that was yours?. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember why you were elected! Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Some of that money is just gone. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Paying the money back has taken a lot longer, and time is running out for the U.S. government to collect. It was David who was hours away from committing the most daring act of his life, and she was going off about Steve being a serious guy? All but one of the defendants pleaded guilty. The gang made numerous mistakes. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 millionliterally more than one ton of cash. Unexplained Mysteries and Strange Things,Cool Interesting stuff has been online since early 2011. Loomis Fargo, the nation's largest privately held armored- car company, used vans to transport hundreds of millions of dollars a day belonging to banks and other businesses, stocking automated teller machines and storing money in the Loomis vault between deliveries. 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. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. 12) Loomis Fargo heist- The aftermath Ultimately, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo bank heist. His eyes widened and he stopped breathing as he realized that something as mundane as a malfunctioning gate might ruin their entire plan. Later, they also arrested Nathans older brother. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. David got a kick out of her. The October 4 shift was lasting longer than expected, due to delays involving pickups and deliveries. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. When I put that cash in the back of the car, by the time I got to the office the whole car smelled like that. The robbery was committed by Loomis vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt, his married girlfriend Kelly Campbell (a former Loomis co-worker), Steven Eugene Chambers (a one-time FBI informant), his wife Michelle Chambers, Michael Gobbies, and four other co-conspirators.