loomis fargo heist kelly campbell loomis fargo heist kelly campbell

But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. In order to receive more evidence, the FBI decided to listen. In March 1997, after Loomis Fargo & Company has been robbed of $18.8 million in Jacksonville by company security guard Philip Noel Johnson, Steve Eugene Chambers and Kelly Campbell, a former employee of Loomis, decides to rob the company. She will never get beyond the debt. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. The figures can be astounding. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Afterward, everything became comical. I think if you remember some of her early photographic opportunities, shall we put it that way, she was sort of laughing, not seeming to take it seriously.. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. That movie, Masterminds, was filmed in 2014. Sure to be in demand as the book has been made into a movie, Masterminds, to be released in August.Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR. 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. They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. They assumed that whoever was involved would keep the cash in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. He shut the empty vault and set its timer so the vault could not be opened for two or three days. : The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. Still facing possible unknowns of other people involved, the FBI needed to gather more information without the suspects getting suspicious of them. And they could barely afford the minimum payments, given the power bills, phone bills, car insurance bills, and home payments they had to meet. Curiously, Payne had recently paid of his Visa in one payment and had been driving around new and rented vehicles for the past weeks. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.'. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde. In the end, the FBI was able to capture the original gang in five months, snaring 21 individuals for their participation in the crime. (LogOut/ The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. "Just remind Steve," he said, "that I might be trouble my own self." Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. The participants in the heist also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries. It was 2:00 p.m. on October 4, 1997, and tension was building between two planners of what would rank high among the largest heists in United States history. The actual crime itself required none of Hollywood's imagination. This technically made it abank robbery afederal offense. Authorities were notified of the robbery in the morning, when employees couldnt open the vault. Worlds Biggest Heists London Hatton Garden 200m Diamond Robbery, Easter 2015. He has been a staff writer for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey since 2000. 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. That was the thing that sticks in my mind to this day.. The FBI was inadvertently aided by the gang members extravagant spending. 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. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. Ghantt had struck up a relationship with a fellow Loomis Fargo employee, Kelly Campbell; they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Their only intimate physical contact had been kissing on a mid-September night when they had driven her pickup truck to a field behind a shooting range in Gaston County to discuss their plans and the theft's chance of success. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. "Do you know how much there's gonna be?" The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. Nathan, Steves cousin, was found in a mobile home the Chambers had abandoned. The plan was for Ghantt to commit the actual robbery and then quickly leave the country forMexico but to leave the bulk of the cash with Chambers. But this time on the phone, Kelly wasn't joking. He deserved better. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. 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. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) 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. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist said. Records show the government has garnished his Social Security checks. The bigger the amount, however, the bigger the damages to victims that likely will never be repaid: - Amy Paynes collection account was closed in 2020 with her having paid $53,000 of the $274,000 she owed. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. Jim Gronquist was Campbells defense attorney. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. He stayed at it until the vault was empty. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing. Now and again I run into blog posts that tends to make me want to get started on bloggin myself. What it does is put a ball and chain on that person for the rest of their lives, they are walking around and they are basically an indentured servant, Gronquist said. A third surveillance tape was carelessly left behind, and the company was able to identify the man who robbed the vault as David Ghantt. If we can sit on the money for a year, maybe two, it could work.". He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. Her case closes in 2025. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. The next day, before Mike was able to leave the country, the FBI arrested him in his hotel room. she asked again. High around 65F. 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. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. contact us to submit an unexplained mystery article, or to join the team on the email address below. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. Kelly had approached David with the idea in the summer, knowing he had a crush on her and winning him over with the promise that a shady friend of hers with Mafia ties would help them. Later that year, he saw a newspaper ad for a job at Loomis Fargo. Then they returned it. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Twenty years ago this Wednesday, a small group of people stole $17 million in cash from the main vault of a Loomis Fargo & Co. armored-car warehouse in west Charlotte. The gang made numerous mistakes. 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. 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.. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may 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. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. He would then have the bulk of his share sent south of the border. 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. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Ghantt met up with the other members of the plot and offloaded the cash. 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. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. David was supposed to be showing him the ropes of the job, which included cash pickups and deliveries. It wasn't how much you stole that mattered most; it was that you had stolen in the first place. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP). Some of the biggest numbers remaining on the Loomis collection board, as is the case with Campbell, belong to those who played the biggest role in the crime: David Ghantt, the Loomis employee who loaded all that money 2,800 pounds in all into the back of a company van before escaping to Mexico, has paid just under $50,000 of the $3.81 million he was assessed. It all seemed unfair. After marrying Tammy in 1992, he worked fueling airplanes at the airport in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Lacking a college degree, he found that his army skills felt meaningless in the 1990s job market. 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. Hes a family man with a wife and daughter. He ejected the two VCR tapes that he knew had recorded him stealing the money, took them, and prepared to leave. Now, at 7:45 p.m., with all the money finally inside the van, his aching muscles could take a breather. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. 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. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. 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. The money weighed as much as a compact car and he did it all by himself. The Loomis Fargo Heist Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. But he wasn't finished. He and Tammy could have one or two meals each week that he really liked, but the rest were hot dogs or Hamburger Helper. 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. 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. For the defendants in the Loomis Fargo heist, its allure was irresistible. She'd left Loomis in November 1996 to take a job elsewhere as a security guard. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television.