Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie. It changes you. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. Why did this Charlotte engineer leave her job? Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Kelly had recently left a job driving an armored-car for Loomis, Fargo & Co. "He's the one who brought it up first," said Kelly, a year after her arrest. One day, the two employees were in the break room and got to talking about the news of the day a massive bank heist that just occurred in Florida by someone at their company. I just had to call you., Today, Ghantt cant look back on the whole ordeal without some degree of pride. Although David was in on most of the planning, one discussion between Steve and Kelly was kept a secret. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. "I missed my family. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Ghantt was scheduled to work a shift at the armored car company Oct. 4. David didn't even know Steve's name. 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. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. There was, however, one problem with his plan. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. About the same time, Kelly and McKinney received phone calls from agents who told them to open their doors. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. But the idea of all that money pulled at her. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. But in November, money ran low. The Loomis defendants face no additional legal jeopardy for not paying off their debts. The plan was to split the money three ways: Chambers, Campbell and Ghantt would each walk away with what Ghantt estimated to be $5 million a piece the kind of money that changes lives forever. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. The cart held about $2 million, and the thief made multiple trips. I wanted to get as far away as I could. Hes well thought-out. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Too many questions remained: Where was the cash? Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. This is where it starts to unravel, Ghantt tells me with a wry laugh. Inside the Mazda, Steve told Scott Grant to get out and help David. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. ". At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. In real life: Mostly true. Steven Chambers [Misc. 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. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. "I said, 'I don't want him killed.' In real life: False. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. She will never get beyond the debt. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. I really enjoyed the little scuba diving trip. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' He partied, met women, drank, skied and hung out at the beach. ". I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. Agents found out where Ghantt was living because Chambers had put out a hit on him, foolishly believing Ghantt was the only person the FBI had fingered for the crime. Besides her prison sentence . When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' Things went from bad to worse when, in November, Michelle strolled into a bank with a briefcase filled with 200 grand and asked the manager, How much can I deposit without the bank reporting the transaction? When she showed the bank manager that she really had the money to invest, the cash was still bound in Loomis Fargo wrappers. One day, the two employees were in the break room and got to talking about the news of the day a massive bank heist that just occurred in Florida by someone at their company. They involve Loomis armored car driver David Scott Ghantt. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. Its kind of like that. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. You can garnish wages. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs. Then he was driving in the darkness with a van full of cash. David complained it wasn't enough. Scary. Or as he tells me, How many people in the United States havent thought about robbing a bank? Kelly, she says now, was thinking about how happy she would be to send this man far away from her. 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. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. Basically, he needed a score to make his problems go away. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. He didn't want to abandon his parents. That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. Eventually, Steve made Kelly believe they could steal from Loomis and get away with it, she said. They hatched the idea half-jokingly, over a game of Uno, never dreaming they were about to make Bonnie and Clyde look like bottom feeders. I missed my wife. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. "Things I always wanted to do, but never had the time or the money," he said. 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. The FBI was also surveilling Kelly Campbell and followed her to a pay phone that she used to place calls to Mexico. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. 1997 Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle for sale at auction of items bought after Loomis, Fargo armored car facility heist by Steven Chambers, wife Michele, Kelly Jane Campbell & David Scott Ghanntt (Photo by Will And Deni McIntyre/Getty Images) They tried to break the van's bulletproof windows. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. At 6-1 and 220 pounds, Steve was stocky and imposing, a fast talker with a brown goatee. "As soon as you start, you realize there's no going back," David recalled. Then another. She laughed for like 45 minutes. how to match 8 hypercubes in bejeweled. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. When October 1997 began, Steve and Michelle Chambers lived in a double-wide trailer. "I thought he was goofing around.". . When McKinney realized Ghantt was wanted for the Loomis Fargo robbery, he backed off personally because he didnt want to be anywhere near a federal investigation. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. Question: You went to Mexico. By late November, McKinney made a third trip to Mexico, saying he'd help David move to Mexico City. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. Kelly, using David's cell phone, kept beeping him. I said, It comes down to picking the right day, and the right time of the month, and all that good stuff. I even told her, It wouldnt be all that difficult. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Steve tried keys on a side door. Sweat soaked David's uniform. It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. You have to remember that it's Hollywood and they'll take what was a minor event and they'll blow it up and make it as funny as they can.". "For the first year, they're all over you. Kelly was no criminal. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. If they could just sit on the money until then, he said, they'd be fine. He was an old friend from East Gaston High School, tough and sure of himself. Question: Are you surprised that Hollywood took this on as a movie? He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. Heres your money. Then he turns around and leaves., The problem was, it was nowhere near the amount Ghantt had expected: Im looking at it, and theres maybe $8,000. Steve solicited two others to help move cash during the theft. 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. More than 20 people ended up in the FBI's dragnet. "We kept going, '1-4-3, 1-4-3,' " recalled Vic O'Korn, assistant special agent in charge of Charlotte's FBI office. Visit us at Loomis.us. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? Ghantt simply got ready for work one morning knowing it would be his last day on the job. Ghantt:It's a comedy. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. Should David be killed after he gave them the money? . Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. If you go from a mobile home to a mansion, that's going to attract attention. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. He's a very likable person. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. 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.