Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Chambers also promised to join Ghantt in Mexico as soon as she could, but she admitted to Super Heists she never had any intention of actually making the trip. In February 2009 the Associated Press reported that Chambers had chosen to describe himself as "changed". I knew that if I did something like that, I would take a huge amount of money, Ghantt said of the brash robbery on an upcoming episode of CNBCs Super Heists, airing Monday at 10 p.m. Ghantt, a U.S. Army veteran, was living a relatively boring life working as the vault superintendent at a Loomis Fargo armored car warehouse just outside Charlotte, North Carolina making a relatively meager paycheck, when he crossed paths with Kelly Campbell. David GhanttRetweeted Iraqveteran8888 @Iraqveteran8888 Dec 9, 2022 Elect me President and I'll fire everyone, free Julian Assange, and pardon Edward Snowden. Sarah Hartsfield: Brother of David Bragg killed by Chambers County But Ghantt has been open about what he did and how he believes it changed him for the better. Her reaction seems so far away now, all these years and a Hall of Fame career later. Chambers, his wife, and several of their accomplices were arrested the next day. Parishioners filled the pews for a memorial mass held for Bishop David O'Connell Wednesday night at the St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights. When the rest of the Loomis Fargo employees showed up the next morning and found that they couldnt open the vault, they called the police. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. A: When I first got in, I thought, "What in my life has led me to this?" Kate. Here, he amps up the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. Q: How do you tell prospective employers you once stole $17 million? dvelopper et amliorer nos produits et services. David Ghantt worked as a vault supervisor for the armoured cash vehicles at the Charlotte, North Carolina branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. Ironically even though he worked for a company that moved millions of dollars every day, he was relatively underpaid. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. Jimmy Carter is a Liberal Saint Now, Was a War Criminal Then. Loomis Fargo employees could not open the vault the next morning and called the police. Michele Chambers' sentence was two months longer than that given to David Scott Ghantt, the Loomis employee who removed the money from the company vault on Oct. 4, 1997. Separating the Red and Blue. Wij, Yahoo, maken deel uit van de Yahoo-merkenfamilie. David Scott Ghantt: Vault Supervisor David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. He stayed at a luxury hotel and took scuba diving lesson. Hes way smarter than youd think he would be because he tends to play Bozos. afficher des publicits et des contenus personnaliss en fonction de vos profils de centres dintrt; mesurer lefficacit des publicits et contenus personnaliss; et. By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell. He told me they were in the dirt business, so he didn't have to worry too much about me. Q: You say your time in federal prison changed you. ``None of these defendants , in this court's opinion, are capable of making substantial restitution, no matter what they do, or no matter what they try,' Mullen said. The Loomis Fargo heist became something of a media lightning rod. hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? They got to work planning the straightforward heist that would rely on Ghantts existing access to the vault, fewer staff at the warehouse on the weekends, and the ability to use one of the companys armored trucks to make the successful getaway. Nine other relatives and friends were also charged with money laundering, as they had co-signed for safe deposit boxes used to store some of the money; prosecutors opted to charge them on the grounds that they should have known the money was obtained illegally. At the. The connection to Chambers took more time. mesurer votre utilisation de nos sites et applications. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story. Its heavy. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Chambers and his wife also made some cash payments on a few cars. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. David Ghantt is more than just a man who was a part of one of the worlds largest heists, he's more than a funny name associated with a comedy movie, he's actually just an every day person who once made a really bad decision. I was working sometimes 75-80 hrs a week for $8.15 an hour, I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there I was working all the time and unhappy which is understandable considering how old I was at the time. At the time it was thesecond largest bank heistin U.S. history. All of the defendants except for one pleaded guilty and accepted their sentences. Biography Comedy Crime A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. But there was just one thing the group hadnt been counting on: the massive weight of that amount of cash. Ghantt, Chambers, and Campbell came up with the following plan: Ghantt would remain in the vault after his shift on the night of the heist, Oct. 4, 1997, and let his co-conspirators into the vault. Three of the 21 defendants in the case haven't been sentenced. David Scott Ghantt 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 and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. Campbell was another employee at Loomis Fargo and she and Ghantt quickly struck up a relationship, one that Campbell denies was ever romantic though FBI evidence says otherwise, and one that continued after she left the company. Explain: The scary part is that as soon as you put that little bit of money in the van, that there's no going back. Theres barely a laugh in the entire film, which looks like it was shot entirely in one take while the actors were still working out their characters. The Army veteran and Hunter Huss High graduate was captured in Mexico five months later when one of the others involved in the theft, Steve Chambers, decided he needed to tie up loose ends by having Ghantt killed. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. Campbell was receptive and brought the idea up to Ghantt. Guided by federal sentencing rules, prosecutors had requested a sentence of nine years for Michele Chambers. Now, here we are, two years later. I'll take the live one. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. Chambers, it turned out, became the biggest source of evidence for the FBI. All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. To its credit, Masterminds does nail down the broad strokes of the real story, although there were a couple of noteworthy details the film left out. How Did A Model Employee Manage To Steal More Than $17 Million - Yahoo! The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist - PrepScholar David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story David Ghantt And The Ridiculous Loomis Fargo Heist For a time, it was nicknamed "the hillbilly heist" because nearly all of the major players in the case came from small towns around Charlotte. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. Chambers was a small-time crook who suggested to Campbell that they rob Loomis Fargo. I was working all the time and unhappy I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. Ghantt, who had been with the bank since 1994, was promoted from driver to vault supervisor in 1997, where he earned $360 a week and befriended Kelly Campbell (Wiig), who got Ghantt mixed up in the plans for the heist after she left Loomis. They took a lot of liberty with the story here and there. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. #CLXGaming#CLXRa#evokethegods 1 2 Across the border in Mexico, Ghantt was also living it up. The judge said he would recommend that Michele Chambers be given mental health treatment in prison. When he was done, the man drove off to a nearby printing press, where the money was distributed into private vehicles amongst a handful of people. Als u niet wilt dat wij en onze partners cookies en persoonsgegevens voor deze aanvullende doeleinden gebruiken, klik dan op 'Alles weigeren'. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. Hes a great person. The police then called the FBI because most of the money handled at the facility belonged to banks, which technically made it a bank robbery a federal offense.[5]. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Do you still have contact with him? The additions come as KFC recently removed some menu items, including wings, popcorn chicken and cookies, to make room for new additions. Her husband, Steve Chambers, whom prosecutors have called the main defendant, began serving an 11-year sentence earlier this year. You've decided to give up on a part of your life. Ill never pay it off on my paycheck, Ghantt said. For instance, after stealing $17.3 million $11 million of which was in $20 bills the conspirators had to leave behind $3 million in cash because they couldnt fit all of it in their cars. Jared Hess directed Masterminds, and god bless the guy, but if Gentlemen Broncos and Nacho Libre were not proof enough that Napoleon Dynamite was a fluke, Masterminds should seal the deal. Dont come to me for a treasure map, Ill put it to you that way., Michael Sainatos writing has appeared in the Guardian, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, Buffalo News, the Hill, Alternet, and several other publications . The Book of Dave: A New Path After a $17 Million Misstep by David By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 30, 2016 |. The brother of a man killed by a woman now charged with murder in Chambers County said he sees similarities in his brother's case and the case of woman's latest husband's death. David Ghantt was a nuisance to Steve Chambers and Kelly Campbell, John Wydra, a retired FBI agent who handled the case, told Super Heists.. David Ghantt had been a model employee for an armored car company before pulling off the second biggest cash heist in U.S. history, fleeing with more than $17 million in untraceable bills in 1997. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. If I hadnt of done that, Id probably still be in North Carolina and I would not have got to meet a lot of the interesting people that Ive got to meet. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. I learned that I was an a--hole. October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery - Wikipedia The pair were both from the United States but had lived in the Peloponnese region of Greece for the past few years. Si vous ne souhaitez pas que nos partenaires et nousmmes utilisions des cookies et vos donnes personnelles pour ces motifs supplmentaires, cliquez sur Refuser tout. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. Campbell knew theyd need the help of the warehouses vault supervisor, who just happened to have a crush on her, and she called Ghantt to ask for his help. Follow him on twitter: @MSainat1, 20 Years Later: Masterminds of One of the Largest Bank Heists in U.S. History, The CIAs Changing Take on the Climate Emergency, Emancipation, Hollywoods Best Civil War Film Ever. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. He would eventually be arrested in Mexico in March 1998 after one of his co-conspirators put out a hit on him under the false suspicion he was the only prime suspect authorities were aware of at the time. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. During the next few months they bought a BMW-Z3 roadster and tens of thousands of dollars in antiques, furniture and decorations. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it, Ghantt remembered later to the Gaston Gazette. Ghantt plead guilty to his charges andserved six years in prison, along with21 other defendantswho received chargesrangingfrom money laundering to bank larceny. Even the outtakes during the credits are bad. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. A: I'm in dire need for some RO's barbecue and some Tony's Ice Cream. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. A movie based on the heist starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and directed by Jared Hess (the guy who made Napoleon Dynamite) is out now on Blu-ray and DVD. The missing couple were identified as David Harrison Robinson and his wife Lucretia Robinson. While she made small deposits at first, she became more reckless, eventually making a deposit of thousands of dollars in cash, telling the teller not to worry: Its not drug money.. A: When you're locked up, you live in an 8-by-10 box and you share that with two other people. Just the ability to come and go as I please and walk barefooted in the backyard means so much. Until it's gone, you don't appreciate it. WOMAN GETS TIME IN LOOMIS HEIST - Greensboro News and Record March 2, 2023 - Alex Murdaugh found guilty in the murder of his wife But even though he worked for a company that regularly moved millions of dollars, David Ghantt himself was underpaid. 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. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. Im like, You need to understand that, that money has been missing for 20 years. What happens at the end of mastermind? The True Story of David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo Heist, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. Ghantt, now 29, was a tall, decorated Persian Gulf War veteran whom early newspaper reports likened to Huckleberry Finn. Though she agreed to cooperate with the government when she pleaded guilty to bank larceny and money laundering in August 1998, Michele Chambers didn't tell the FBI she still had the ring until December, when she turned it in. Said Ghantt, one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Fact check: Is there much truth to the new 'Masterminds' movie Masterminds is an atrociously bad comedy, and absolutely everyone is to blame. In total, 24 people were convicted. Two days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. Prosecutors also resisted Culler's efforts to downplay Michele Chambers' role in the theft. Galifianakis will play the armored car driver, David, who evades authorities, will be searching for his co-conspirators who betrayed him, Kelly (Kristen Wiig) and Steve (Owen Wilson). The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). ", After successfully tracing Ghantt's phone call, FBI agents coordinated with Mexican police to arrest Ghantt on March 1, 1998, at Playa del Carmen, a city near Cancun. ``This defendant was second to Steve Chambers in (benefiting) from the crime,' he said. David Ghantt | World Record Holder and Mastermind The Thieves Who Couldn'T Cope With $17 Million I did get to meet him. 1) David Ghantt is underpaid and unhappy. "Wells Fargo and Loomis forming armored car company", Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 16:45, Learn how and when to remove this template message, painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet, "FindACase | United States of America v. Steven Eugene Chambers", "The Unperfect Crime | New Dominion Pictures", "Sunday Evening/Late Night September 9, 2001", "Loomis Fargo heist: Q&A with guy who stole $17 million", "MASTERMINDS - Movie Production NotesCinemaReview.com", Ghantt and other gang members arrested in March 1998, Steven Chambers released from prison; announces he is a "retired criminal", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=October_1997_Loomis_Fargo_robbery&oldid=1140756292, Overcoming the mindset that led to the part David Ghantt played in the Loomis robbery and how he started on a new path was the subject of the book, Within days of the robbery, the case was depicted on the television criminal reporting show, An expanded two-hour special episode of the crime documentary series. Not only was Ghantt the only unaccounted for employee the morning after the heist, there was also footage of Ghantt moving the cash into the back of the Loomis Fargo van. followed by "Don't worry, it is not drug money," the bank filled out a suspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. How Did David Ghantt, Kelly Campbell, Steve Chambers Steal More Than He was released in 2006. Ghantt sent home a new employee and quickly loaded the money into the back of a bank van. If you're trying to make yourself better today, that's all most people care about. Pour en savoir plus sur la faon dont nous utilisons vos donnes personnelles, veuillez consulter notre politique relative la vie prive et notre politique en matire de cookies. He then began loading $17 million in unmarked bills inside a company van before driving away. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt of an old high school friend of hers, Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt in executing a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. Federal Judge Graham Mullen sentenced her to between those lengths. The Election, U.S. Foreign Policy, And Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Lecture, Nate Parker on Rape Allegations: 'I Don't Feel Guilty'. Ghantt @ChristyGhantt Dec 7, 2022 I just entered the @clxgaming Ra PC Giveaway! He made it across the border just as his deception was discovered. Masterminds | On-set visit with Zach Galifianakis 'David Ghantt' Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. So with the assistance of a co-worker and possible love interest as well as a small-time criminal, David Ghantt pulled off the then-second-largest cash heist in U.S. history. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points, How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer, Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. START or Stop: Do Nuclear Weapons Treaties Matter? ABC7 Eyewitness News Watch Now In October of 1997, I was a vault supervisor for armored truck company Loomis Fargo, when I made off with $17.3 million. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. Creative Insights. I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. David Bowie 's widow recently took to Instagram to post selfies, while promoting both her makeup brand and fashion line. Then you end up in a eight by ten cube and youre going to share that cube with two other people. Ghantt was the vault manager. That usually takes the shine right off of it, when you start explaining that. He continued, Youd be wearing a lot of khaki brown and eating crappy food., Since the films release and its recent Netflix debut, Scott Ghent cited that the most common question he receives is about the missing $2 million never recovered by the FBI; Ive had people actually ask me that question. Pocketing $50,000 for himself, that man, named David Ghantt, hopped into a car of his own and headed towards Mexico. The only defendant to not plead guilty, Chambers's attorney Jeff Guller, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to eight years in prison. At the time it was the second largest cash robbery ever to happen on US soil. He and his wife, Michelle, moved from their mobile home in Lincoln County to a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section of Cramerton. Thats the big thing. 43-year-old Margret and her mother both died in 2012 . As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. (His wife tells him to change that word to "selfish."). After years of working hard, the realisation hit . David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis), an employee of Loomis Fargo, robbed his own vault, left the $17.3 million in cash with his co-conspirators, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) and Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and fled the country to Mexico. A Comprehensive Guide. Everybody thinks being famous and being an actor is stupendous, and the money is fantastic, but they kind of live in afish bowl. Here's whatGhantt says now about the heist that madethe "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" famous and changed him forever. 'When you have money, you just have different problems': The Loomis He was the only employee unaccounted for the next morning, and videotapes recovered at the Loomis Fargo Charlotte office showed Ghantt removing "cubes of cash" and loading it into a Loomis Fargo armored van for over an hour. With a cast like this, and Emily Spivey (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Up All Night) as part of the writing team, Masterminds shouldnt be nearly as obnoxious and dull as it is, but nothing ever clicks. I realized a lot of things that were wrong with me as a person. [1], This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Philip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.[2]. They received sentences and probation ranging from several years to 11 years and three months in federal prison for Steve Chambers, who was also fined more than $3,500,000. Once Ghantt loaded the large haul from the vaultwhich could have been close to $20 millioninto a truck, he planned to drive to a second location, then head straight to the airport and fly to Mexico. Whisler told the judge that the couple had searched for a new house before the theft, and that Michele Chambers bought rubber bands from Wal-Mart to count the money the night of the crime. Masterminds (2016) - Zach Galifianakis as David Ghantt - IMDb He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. Campbellwho was married herselfrepresented something new and exciting. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to . They also bought a BMW Z3 with cash and made several large purchases, including a $600 cigar store Indian.