Filming in the Asheville area starting in early July, and is. Him and I still talk every now and then. Until, that is, he decided to hell with it he was going to pull-off the second largest heist in U.S. history. 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. 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. One number is working in Campbells favor. At the end of one session, they wound up kissing outside the pickup. First, in January, he tried to get someone to take some millions down to Mexico. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? 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. "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". I did a little research into crime statistics and the local cops. "He said, 'Yeah, right,' and turned his head. Key benefit components include: Health insurance plans. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and were here to relive every minute of it. About 20 ago, Campbell sent him a letter of apology, but he never responded. 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. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. . Twenty people were convicted of roles big and small in the massive 1997 armored-car warehouse heist in west Charlotte. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Ghantt:It's a comedy. Ghantt went on to explain that he rarely even looks at his debt statement to the government, but believes the IRS says he still owes them $3.8 million. David thought about it. Steve told me to tell [David] whatever was necessary to keep him happy.". "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. In real life: False. Our Benefits. I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. 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. ];David Scott Ghanntt [Misc.] As you probably know, it's loosely based on the Loomis Fargo heist in Charlotte back in the late nineties. Steve had already paid McKinney $50,000 for the use of his ID. 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. . Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. He goes, My name is Bruno. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. Exhibit A was that Steve had no steady job but plenty of cash. It wasn't known whether anyone would receive it. Dental plans . Kelly found herself standing beside David while they waited together for a bond hearing. and "I'm rich!". "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. At the Halloween party, though, Kelly gave in to Steve, and agreed it had to be done. His collection case, which closes in November 2026, got credit for the couples $540,000 house on Cramer Mountain in Gaston County, Butcher says. Looking for Kelly Loomis? Guller was the attorney for Steven Chambers, who came up with the original idea for the Loomis theft. Note: No quotes were altered, although in some cases additional quotes were added to the questions as Ghantt expanded on his thoughts. ". . The FBI, in fact, obtained the evidence they needed to bring down the major players, including Chambers, after catching them talking about the murder plot on the telephone via wiretap. The barrels were Steves idea, Ghantt says. Theres less security. "We're not the type that questions everything people tell us," Floyd said. Things were spiraling fast. Loomis Fargo Defendants Owe as Much as They Stole in 1997, 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. Before long, the FBI had wiretaps on the ringleader, Steve Chambers, and then they waited for the right time to make their arrests. You might as well go all the way now.". While the agents initiated their investigation, the Chambers spent money as quickly as they could. David was sentenced to 7 1/2 years. "He showed me a lot of money," McKinney said. Campbell, 29, had pleaded guilty to charges of bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. With the help of Aldo, a Mexican waiter he had befriended, David found a beach apartment in Cancun. Chambers did hire McKinney to kill Ghantt, but initially McKinney was making personal cash deliveries to Ghantt in Mexico on behalf of Chambers. On his second trip, Steve gave McKinney David's hotel address. They obviously werent trying to get it right they were putting together what they believe is a better story, said Diamant. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. They stocked a wine cellar. He told her he wanted more of "his" cash. Yes, happy. Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Ghantt:Since I still owe the federal government money I can't get paid. Loomis employees drive the very core of our business. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. He realized that if they met the minimum monthly payments, the bill would take 30 years to pay. It affects everybody different. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. I knew it was just a matter of time. I can take it.". Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. 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. All the while, Ghantt prepared himself for the task at hand. Kelly drove David to the airport. Then another. Despite a mega-watt cast featuring Zach Galifianakis and a handful of some of Saturday Night Lives biggest current and former stars, Masterminds, the comedy about Loomis Fargo robbery completely tanked at the box office in its opening weekend, bowing in sixth place with just $6.6 million. The others, though, went no farther than Cramer Mountain. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. Reach our Customer Contact Center by calling 877.877.0560 from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM CT every day or by completing the provided form. Michele received the best gift of the night. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. I was just going to get the money into the van. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. At the party, Steve invited Michele's stepfather, truck driver Dennis Floyd, to the basement to play pool. When he said, 'I'll give you $20,000 to hold a million,' I said, 'Sure.' It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. The number of people involved had ballooned after Steve started asking friends and family to help him launder the stolen cash. This is the person I counted as my friend. In a word, "Teamwork. Thats pretty standard in restitution matters. But he tried to keep his face averted, so David wouldn't be able to ID him. 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. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. Not a documentary. Soon thereafter, he met Kelly Campbell, a co-worker at Loomis Fargo. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. I'll never pay it off on my paycheck." What concerned her was the chance of getting caught. . But McKinney never stopped trying to kill Ghantt although, initally, McKinney thought Chambers had paid for the hit over a drug deal gone bad, Diamant said. By . To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. Campbell was released from federal custody in 2004 after serving five years, meaning her collection case will age out in December 2024. real kelly campbell loomis fargo heist. Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantt's feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. "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. They planned to kill a man named David Ghantt, the guy who had made their extravagant new lifestyle a reality. Just head on out. And so, he did. "I've learned that I'm a fortunate man," he said. Meanwhile, outside Reynolds & Reynolds, Steve, Scott and Eric needed to move 2,748 pounds of cash, quickly, from the Loomis van into the Budget van. 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. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM 1998 and ACTORS IN MOVIE. 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. I hit the local library the thing that we used to do before Google, Ghantt says with a small laugh. 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) But the idea of all that money pulled at her. Steven Chambers [Misc. Now, I kind of know something is fishy., Alone in Mexico with limited cash, Ghantt thought about turning himself in. She was devastated, Diamant said. October was "a blast," he said. You might as well take it all, Ghantt tells me. She also assured the teller her cash wasn't drug money. Ghantt:We're both North Carolina boys so we had a lot to talk about from the very beginning. No regrets. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. Its really just a matter of timing, more than anything. And she says, How much do you think wed get out of there? I said, Ten to 15 million. But I didnt really know.. I would call us friends. From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. He grabbed the tapes from two VCRs that connected to 16 security cameras. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. "He was in tears. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. 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. Question: Any contact with Steve Chambers or any of the others involved with the heist? It wasnt a big hit, but Ghantt, who was played by Galifianakis, gives it a rave review. So he got in a cab and went to a mall. Truth be told, Ghantt had something of a crush on Campbell, and so, he told her exactly how hed pull off such a heist. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. ". Health savings account and flexible spending account.