Question: How much of 'Masterminds' is true? Because surprise! Depression had led to smoking a lot of marijuana and taking Prozac, a combination she figures affected her judgment. Ghantt:I hate to say it, but I had six years of sitting in a box to think about my life. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Ghantt:I've burned that bridge years ago. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. For her part, Kelly Campbell spent six years in federal prison. Now he offered to pay him to carry cash to David--Steve said he was a friend hiding out after a bad drug deal, McKinney recalled. From going fishing to riding horses on the beach the whole nine yards. Few who were living in the area at the time can forget the "Velvet Elvis" painting Chambers had hanging in his mansion or the tales of cosmetic surgery, BMW convertibles and other signs of excess. Soon, the couple would be paying for something else, too: a hitman. and "I'm rich!". The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. If I hadn't done what I did the, the life I have now with my wife and child, I wouldn't have. Looking for Kelly Loomis? After a couple of weeks, Ghantt and the rest of the heist team were ready to strike. 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. . It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. No hard feelings. She didn't plan to move to Mexico. Kelly was no criminal. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. As for his new wife, when the two just started dating, he was nervous about letting her know about his past, but he wanted to be honest. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. At 7:45, David had finished loading. . But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. Agents began picking up signs that David definitely had help: The abandoned Loomis van with $3.3 million in small bills still inside, and phone records showing that somebody beeped him while he stole the money, using David's own cell phone. One number is working in Campbells favor. Careers. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. "But I had to know.". 2500 City West Blvd., Suite 2300 Houston, TX 77042. Agents noticed it two months later when it flowed to them through official channels, along with hundreds of similar reports involving other people. Eric watched. . real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. The FBI now knew Chambers had Loomis cash. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' 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. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. The name she gave the pup is apropos. The plan called for David to leave the vault door ajar, then maneuver a few minutes alone at the end of his shift, long enough to loot the cash, then pass it to Kelly and Steve. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. She came from a blue-collar background, a high school dropout who had grown tired of working in a mill and gotten an equivalency diploma. 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. "I was trying to figure out a way to [leave my husband] and take care of my kids without having to depend on him or any other man," Kelly said. 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. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. She was a wife and mother with two children. By . >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4,. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. Question: You were a consultant? Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. If you want to go ahead and go, I got it. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . 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. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. 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. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Then, on a mid-September day, as he reviewed a credit card bill, David did some math. But it wasnt. . The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. He had a favorite restaurant, Zandunga, which had a mariachi band each night and a view of the Caribbean. "I" has one letter. When he finished, the van was filled with $17 million. 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. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. Its hilarious. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. She will never get beyond the debt. But I thought this is me being hard-headed Im going to ride this thing to the ground. And so thats what I did.. They were the butt of a national joke. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. Ghantt started at Loomis Fargo in 1994, and soon worked his way up from an armored car driver to a vault supervisor. When Ghantt was on the plane home from Mexico with the FBI, he admitted to the agents that while Campbell had been integral to why hed done it and that he did indeed have a crush on her it was never his true motivation. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. It changes you. On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. October was "a blast," he said. Theres less security. In the dark, Scott inserted one key into the back door slot. Though he never found the right moment to carry out the hit, McKinney did find time to make a friend--a shady character named Robert, to whom he revealed more than was prudent. 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. Ghantt says he operates a bulldozer for a small company. She also must . The Unexpectedly Sweet Story Behind Those Viral Semi-Truck Pregnancy Photos. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. 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. That was the most painful truth to come to. That's the kind of movie they wanted to make. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. And to me, if it pisses them off, Im all for it.. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Scott didn't want to, but then he remembered the hundred-grand payday. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. Thats nearly $11 million less than former Kings Mountain resident David Ghantt (played by Galifianakis in the film) helped steal from the vault where he worked in Charlotte back in October 1997. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. 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. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. David was living under the name Mike McKinney on a phony ID. At the sight of all that money, Scott and Eric had the same thought: They'd made the worst mistake of their lives. If you were one of the much-smaller-than-expected group of people who caught Masterminds at the theater this weekend, and are looking for a fact-check of the events depicted on screen, here are some of the highlights of our chat with Diamant. Money'll turn your head, I don't care who you are. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. You can seize property. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? Steve told Scott to ignore the remaining stacks, which were mostly ones and fives. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. And that's OK with Ghantt, who's just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, out of federal prison for more than a decade, married with a 9-year-old daughter . Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Exciting. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. At one point, the hoodlum shows up and Ghantt is wearing a Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers jersey; the hoodlums favorite team is the Steelers, and he caves and tells Ghantt that McKinney wants him dead. 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.. In the following months, Steve persisted, even floating the notion of placing phony hand grenades on a Loomis truck to scare away the drivers, Kelly said. He recalled that another agent, Phil King, said, "Hey, there was an article in the [Charlotte] Observer about beeper codes. At the time of the real robbery, Chambers was facing criminal charges hed written 30K worth of bad checks and was facing jail time for it. On March 1, David Ghantt left his hotel to do some laundry. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. About 200 keys dangled from it. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. In the two days after the robbery, agents interviewed more than 100 people, most connected with David. Michele told her mother she and Steve had been saving gambling winnings for the down payment. Steve Chambers has told agents the missing cash was stolen from a shed in Lincoln County. He flew in an ultra-light plane. I've got a good woman.". You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. The FBI's final challenge is finding the remaining $2 million. and "I love money!" He was doing what the rest of us were doing making bad decisions. The cash was covered with dog food. 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. Kelly called David at. Chambers went from a mobile home in Lincoln County to a mansion in Cramerton. The Columbia airport had no available flights. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. About 5:30 the next morning, McKinney knocked on David's door and dropped $8,500 on the bed. (The conversation was depicted as 100 percent private on screen). And going to see the Mayan ruins. 1-4-3 is 'I love you.' These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. An officer rang the doorbell. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. At the time, it was the largest cash heist in history. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. He comes to my door, and hes got a brown paper bag in his hand. He and co-worker Kelly Campbell, 27, had developed a close relationship and were spending time together outside of work. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. ". It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. As with many recent historic events, this one had been caught on videotape, a fact that a few dozen Charlotte FBI agents would learn in a hastily organized Sunday morning meeting. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Two more defendants in the $17 million Loomis Fargo & Co. robbery last year have agreed to plead guilty, and a third person entered a formal plea in court. 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. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. But because David's relationship with his Loomis bosses had been rocky, he says, he doesn't feel sorry about what he did to the company. She asked about the limit for a cash deposit before "paperwork" was required. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. I pay (restitution to) thousands of people, but its in drips and drabs.. Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, who had been friends on and off since growing up together in the mid-1980s, were at a cookout, playing cards and drinking Budweiser at Steve's Lincoln County, N.C., mobile home, Kelly recalled. In February 1998, the FBI tapped their phones and listened to Steve discuss depositing $2.5 million in the Cayman Islands. They put up mauve wallpaper. Its in the ether. "Think of how many women would have stood by. In real life: False. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. She declined to take a lie-detector test. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL. In real life: False. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. Chambers never held Campbell hostage by locking her in a shed on his property. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. A week later, another informant told the FBI that Eric Payne had quit his job at a printing company soon after the heist and was spending money he probably hadn't earned legally. ". She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. He told Steve he hadn't been able to find David. Michele tells me you're in a financial bind. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. Not many people can say they stole $17 million from their employer and had Zach Galifianakis play them in a movie.

Buchanan County Warrant Search, Taylor Texas Fatal Car Accident Today, Cory Booker Eye Condition, Articles R