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. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. . Tuesday marked 25 years since a group of buddies pulled off the third-largest money grab in U.S. history -- the Loomis Fargo heist. About 200 keys dangled from it. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. Besides her prison sentence, Campbell must undergo mental health and drug treatment and spend two years in a supervised release program. Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' Ghantt, his former co-worker Kelly Campbell and her friends Steve and Michelle Chambers, carried out the Loomis Fargo heist on Oct. 4, 1997. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. On Feb. 27, agents listened in on a call from David to Kelly and learned David's location in Mexico. Chambers, now 32, didn't grant an interview for this article, but last year, in response to written questions, he said the biggest lesson he learned was: "Family is more important and valuable than money. She could spend time with her children and parents. I hear her typing. Informacin sobre tu dispositivo y conexin a Internet, como tu direccin IP, Actividad de navegacin y bsqueda al utilizar sitios web y aplicaciones de Yahoo. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. 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. Just under $14 million sat in an outbuilding behind his home, inside blue steel barrels. And I think that makes it all the more funny, because it really offends my co-defendants. 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 . Should David be killed after he gave them the money? David said he realized then, for the first time, he might not see the millions he thought he had coming to him. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. Maura Healey unveiled a proposed $55.5 billion state budget Wednesday, a plan that offers insight into some of the Democrats spending priorities during her first year as governor. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of rural North Carolinian amateur bank robbers pulled off the second-largest heist in American history. 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. He hated his job, with its 12-hour shifts. I thought, Okay, if I get out of that bubble because the cops depend on that, even the feds my chances to get away go way up.. The use of this site is restricted to authorized personnel only. The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Two days after theyd robbed the Loomis Fargo truck the very same day the police found the abandoned van in the woods Steve and Michelle Chambers walked into a bank and deposited their cut of the stolen money into their account. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. Website. Its a farce that never farces; a comedy without jokes. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded daily . See all of the stories here. They paid for all of it in cash. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. He hadnt checked ahead of time if the airport had any available flights, let alone if it would even be open. To be brutally honest, it was that morning, Ghantt replied. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. When he walked onto the plane, he was wearing big, tall cowboy boots, where hed stuffed a majority of the smuggled cash. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. And they hit the jackpot -- FBI video shows agents recovering most of the stolen cash. 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. In early November, Steve lured the real Mike McKinney, an ex-Marine, to North Carolina from his Illinois home. Ghantt pulled out $50,000 from the back of the unmarked Loomis Fargo van. ", "Even then . So that was kind of like this once-in-a-lifetime thing, Wydra said. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Ghantts wife woke up to find her husband missing. Then another. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. Where I was going was right there near the Cayman Islands. "He was in tears. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. The whole town I was staying in was 98.9 percent Mexican, except for when the cruise ships were in, Ghantt recalls. Still, she wasn't happy. Steve led the planning. In the first heist, a regional vault supervisor loaded money into a branded truck and . David, the international fugitive, lived it up, too--for a while. Now worried about both the FBI and McKinney, he spent even more time alone in his room. Ghantt had fled to Mexico with $50,000 in cash, leaving the rest of the money with Steve Chambers. Thats one of my personality flaws. . Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. Then another. Not all of them, but some of them are going to forgive you, theyre going to overlook it., he said. 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. They soon realized David had stolen more money than would fit in their 55-gallon barrels. Baltimore leaders have agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers, Four family members from Australia who were injured during a crash-landing of a sightseeing helicopter in December are suing a Las Vegas-based tour operator, Massachusetts Gov. According to Butcher, Campbells last official payment came in June 2021 when the government appears to have seized a tax refund of $81.24. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers' home. Scott was so nervous, he said, that he couldn't help. There it was, "The Heist." David complained it wasn't enough. But as soon as he drove off, I went right back in and opened the vault. It wouldn't work, Kelly told him. When I call Ghantt to discuss his involvement in the Loomis Fargo heist, he confesses that hes feeling a bit tired from a day of honest labor. I was just going to get the money into the van. Working together, they got the gate open, then drove in a caravan to the Reynolds & Reynolds parking lot. I studied up on the FBI. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. Then Steve pushed Scott inside, and he began throwing plastic-wrapped bundles of tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds to Eric and Steve, who placed them in three blue 55-gallon barrels. Ghantt was missing and no one, not even his wife, knew where he was. To the community, the Loomis Fargo heist was a big joke -- the largest hillbilly caper of all time. I made a joke once that was the hardest Id ever worked for Wells Fargo -- yeah, its a lot of work, Ghantt said. All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years 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. Some family members hid money in bank deposit boxes, other friends were asked to mule cash to the Cayman Islands. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. I said, Probably, the best time would be on the weekend; theres fewer people there. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been more successful," David said. Steve told her to send David to Atlanta on a bus and drive back to the trailer. "So he stays behind and moving over two thousand pounds. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. 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. She could visit friends. Oh were not going to talk to anybody, theyre not going to be able to convict us, that bravado happens in the beginning and then it often gets worn down by the reality, Gronquist said. It just happened to fall on my desk.. There was a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't do it. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. The picture, which is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey, stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Jason Sudeikis . Kelly had no problem fanning the flames of their old flirtation. By then Id figured out that Bruno was up to no good, and that Id probably never seen any more of my money. Well they were in some sense celebrities, Gronquist said. Ghantt was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. And going to see the Mayan ruins. 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