document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). He worked close-by to where the van and over $3 million dollars had been ditched, and was friends with Steve Chambers. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. It just happened to fall on my desk.. CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kelly Campbell, the woman who helped plan the $17 million robbery of armored-car company Loomis, Fargo was sentenced yesterday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to. 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. "Just think about it," she said. 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.. They located Steve and Shelley Chambers in their newly-purchased home at the top of a hill. Johnson had stolen $18.8 million earlier in the year, on March 19, 1997, only to be caught five months later, in late August, while crossing into Texas from Mexico to retrieve some of the money, which he'd hidden in a shed in mountainous western North Carolina. The participants in the heist also spent lavishly on fancy jewelry, fancy cars and breast enhancement surgeries. From there, the money was moved from the armored car to private vehicles. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. High around 65F. 2023 Cox Media Group. As beads of sweat formed under his red hair, he loaded up another cart and repeated the process. Ghantt was working as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte in 1997, earning about $8 an hour and tired of his humdrum life. Ms. Campbell worked at Loomis for 11 months, leaving in November 1996, according to court papers. 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. They swept the surrounding counties, locating Kelly Campbell and Eric Payne in their homes. 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. Getting restitution, its like pulling teeth., White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money,, Youre supposed to get less time for cooperating, a lesser penalty, and instead, you see what she got hit with., She will never get beyond the debt. : The .17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft [Jeff Diamant] on Amazon.com. Temptation to do something that you think you normally wouldnt do can change a lot of minds when its that kind of cash, and thats what it was., (WATCH BELOW: VIDEO: The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later). Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Though Wydra is retired, 25 years ago, he was an agent with the FBI. They could talk about anything, even topics he couldn't discuss with his wife. White-collar criminals are pretty good at hiding their money, she said. Aprs de nombreux seconds rles comiques au cinma, elle parvient percer en co-crivant et tenant le rle principal de la The trainee didn't yet know how the place worked, a fact David planned to use to his advantage. Then they returned it. First, they tapped the Chambers phone, and began listening in on February 11th, 1998. Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. 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. His collection case closes in two years. The world is full of unexplained events, strange mysteries, and mysterious legends. A former FBI agent who helped crack the case sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including avelvet Elvis. Human nature is a flexible part of life, Gronquist 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. EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or The FBI became more suspicious after they interviewed Campbell for the third time. Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. "About fourteen or fifteen million dollars," he said. 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. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. In Gastonia, David would run into high-school classmates who had never struck him as especially smart. David and the trainee left the warehouse. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. 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. They didnt expect it.. Cool interesting stuff features everything odd, weird, bizzare, strange or unusual. 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. Since Ghantt was the supervisor, he sent his co-worker home first. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. 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? Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. It was the second-largest. Conversations about stealing from the company weren't rare for Loomis employees. Over the next two weeks, David thought about it. Theres no way to get it back,, And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Enforcement of this policy is at the Federal law stops government collection efforts 20 years after a defendant leaves prison. 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. But on Oct. 4, 1997, that no longer mattered and Ghantt took off with $17.3 million. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. Some of that money is just gone. 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 hated his job and his bosses, he'd lost hope in his marriage, he wasn't going to advance at Loomis, and he couldn't afford to quit to enroll in college. The strange story of Mary Reeser Spontaneous Human Combustion. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. Before the robber left Loomis Fargo, he made a trip to the managers office to remove two surveillance tapes in order to conceal his identity. She had attitude. uncanny, eerie, unnatural, preternatural, supernatural, unearthly, other-worldly, unreal, ghostly, mysterious, mystifying, strange, abnormal, unusual. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is this really about the needs of the poor? Their most important conversation occurred one afternoon in August 1997 after Kelly paged him at work. she asked again. The $17 million Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second largest armored car robbery in U.S. history. 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. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. When did you conclude Yeah, Im actually going to do this? Counts asked. On the evening ofOctober 4, 1997, the Loomis Fargo & Co branch in Charlotte, North Carolina was in the process of being plundered. Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. The next day, before Mike was able to leave the country, the FBI arrested him in his hotel room. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. 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. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/67457/loomis-fargo-heist-masterminds-movie/, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/article104506876.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery#Company, http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/loomis-fargo-heist.html, . Updated: 11:31 AM EDT October 4, 2022 CHARLOTTE, N.C. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte, where a bank worker, with the help of two accomplices,. He knew it would mean leaving Tammy. You can seize property. On Oct. 5, the Loomis heist celebrates its 25th birthday. 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. Eric Payne got out of prison in 2006 for his role in the heist and has since paid $11,357 on his $292,000 debt. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. The 2016 comedy movie, Masterminds is based on the story of the Loomis Fargo Heist. If we work together, we can all have plenty of pie.. 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. 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. The government does not run debtors prisons, says U.S. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done. Then, he proceeded to load 2,800 pounds of cash into a van. And then I realized that a lot of people knew who I was and they had followed the case..