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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. Yet their lives seemed far easier and better than his. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. 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. You should definitely start your own blog, I highly recommend it. It wasn't how much you stole that mattered most; it was that you had stolen in the first place. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. 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. I appreciate your kind words! He has been a staff writer for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey since 2000. Next month, Payne will back in the Charlotte federal courthouse, this time to be sentenced from weapons and methamphetamine trafficking charges. The van used to move the money was later located a few miles from the warehouse. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. He was a hard worker, smart enough, and had graduated from high school. David was thin six-foot-one, one hundred sixty-five pounds and heaving the stacks onto the cart, pushing the cart toward the vault door, and then emptying its contents into the van was exhausting. He was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. And Kelly thought he was funny. 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. Moving the money into the van quickly proved an onerous task. I was relieved emotionally because I knew there was a good chance my luck might run out, Ghantt said. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. David didn't appreciate her tone. She had attitude. Steve Chambers would keep the rest. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. She will never get beyond the debt. He deserved better. 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. "Don't double-cross us," the woman on the phone told David Ghantt. Have a youtube channel or website similar? Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. Ghantt took $50,000 for himself and fled to Cozumel, Mexico. The actual crime itself required none of Hollywood's imagination. That was taking the long view. "Don't back out on us. The affidavit described Chambers as a former FBI informant who had provided information on another Loomis armored car robbery that never materialized. You can seize property. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could be taken across the border by law without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popularYucatan Peninsularesort ofCozumel. But after a year, they cut it down to two agents. But if you did, youll never forget it. If it didn't work out, he could return to the United States later with a new identity. 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. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. 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. Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later Former FBI agent John Wydra, 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. 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. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Restitution is a familiar part of sentencing in federal court. In Gastonia, David would run into high-school classmates who had never struck him as especially smart. Sure enough, she called a few days later, around September 16. 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. 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. Her case closes in 2025. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. He worked close-by to where the van and over $3 million dollars had been ditched, and was friends with Steve Chambers. 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. Afterward, she and David would talk just occasionally on the phone. Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Michelle Chambers received a few more months than Ghantt, because she had violated several bond conditions. He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. The FBI says Chambers hired a hitman to tie up the ultimate loose end -- Ghantt. '. Butcher says the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina have never handled a case quite like Loomis. These cookies do not store any personal information. Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. David and the trainee left the warehouse. There are multiples of thousands of these things coming every year. None of the suspects had been in any serious trouble before this. Friends of Campbell had also begun spending large amounts of cash. They knew Steve Chambers had worked as an informant in the past, and were nervous he would smell out an undercover. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily by millions of dollars worth of temptation. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. I ride motorcycles and fish -- normal guy, Ghantt told Counts. "I've got a friend," she said, "who can hook you up with a new ID.". 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) Spunk. Who was she to be pressuring him? Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. 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. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. The building was configured so vans could drive inside and pull up next to the vault. He realized his bosses would know he had worked that day and that he was missing, but maybe without a video they would think he'd been held at gunpoint and taken hostage, or even better, that he'd been killed. They also purchased expensive cars, jewelry and a breast enhancement or two. Change). In all, they recovered $6.6 million. 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. The hillbilly outfit did more that just drop a few breadcrumbs. Some of that money is just gone. 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. They hadn't slept together or even fooled around much, but he was ready to commit. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. Meanwhile, Ghantt's gang spent wildly and paid their family members and friends to hide money. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. 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. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. How he felt shorted by life. 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.. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. Then they returned it. sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may They didnt expect it.. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. "So he stays behind and moving over two thousand pounds of . He knew his mother would be traumatized, shocked, and appalled. Sun, sand and beaches are all part of why Jacksonville is a popular destination. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. 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. 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 also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantts personal safety; they had learned of Chambersmurder for hirescheme. As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or Down in Jacksonville, a Loomis Fargo employee took $18 million from an armored van he was driving.