Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. Q: Do you ever think about what your life would be like if you had gotten away with the money? 5 min read. Then check out another bank robber who inspired a movie, John Wojtowicz. Guided by federal sentencing rules, prosecutors had requested a sentence of nine years for Michele Chambers. In the end, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo heist. 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. And it didn't take long to figure out that this was not the place for me. But even though he worked for a company that regularly moved millions of dollars, David Ghantt himself was underpaid. ", The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery thats followed the easing of the coronavirus pandemic has produced several encouraging develo. 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. Kelly Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced in October. 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. For Christmas, Steve Chambers gave his wife a $43,000 diamond ring. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. While Ghantt spent more than 6 1/2 years in federal prison, he said he usedthat time to"re-invent" himself. Ghantt, now 29, was a tall, decorated Persian Gulf War veteran whom early newspaper reports likened to Huckleberry Finn. David Ghantt : [voice-over] Steve was a petty thief, mostly known for stealing tiny wheelchairs from pediatric hospitals. He and his wife,. Ghantt's spending in Mexico was extravagant at first. It was over. His wife, they said, got breast implants and used cash to purchase a 1998 BMW Z3 sports car. The jokes between Ghantt and Campbell about their disgruntlement with their jobs took on a more serious note when Campbell introduced Ghantt to an old high school classmate of hers named Steve Chambers. However, the fact that a man who formerly lived in a mobile home was lavishly spending money on a luxury home ($635,000 in cash), expensive cars, and a ring ($42,000 in cash) eventually made it easy to connect the dots. Im like, You need to understand that, that money has been missing for 20 years. They would then load as much cash as they could carry into a van. They called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. The judge said he doubted she would be able to pay the $4.8 million restitution, but said federal law required him to impose it. In total, 24 people were convicted. The former star . David Scott Ghantt: Vault Supervisor David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. Now, here we are, two years later. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesMichele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. At the time it was the second largest cash robbery ever to happen on US soil. A: I like the 47-year-old David Ghantt more than I did the 20-something David Ghantt. 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. David Ghantt : I had a hard time liftin' it up. Its easy to get somebody to do something if you know that they are that infatuated with you.. [7][8], Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants. I work construction. ``There are many people with those factors who don't resort to crime,' he said. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, had never been in trouble with the law. The thieves had simply abandoned whatever they couldnt carry away. On similar grounds, four other people were ultimately also charged with money laundering. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. In the meantime, however, Chambers not only refused to wire money to Ghantt in Mexico, but ultimately hired a hitman (Jason Sudeikis) to take him out. 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. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell, and some other notable parties were arrested in Charlotte. The odds of you actually getting away with something these days is pretty damn slim. The judge said he would recommend that Michele Chambers be given mental health treatment in prison. Her reaction seems so far away now, all these years and a Hall of Fame career later. David Ghantt normally came home between 6 and 8 p.m., and often he was late, his wife said. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. You see, theres a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. . He completed his prison sentence in November 2006. After his release, Ghantt took a job as a construction worker and was eventually brought on as a consultant for the 2016 movie Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo Heist. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Hes a great person. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. 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. An elderly American couple who went missing in Greece in late January this year were discovered dead in Taygetos mountain range. Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. 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. Before he decided to steal $17 million from the bank, Ghantt had worked for years as a relatively taciturn and compliant employee. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. Most high schools offer a variety of history classes, so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. Will California Save the Iconic Joshua Tree? Both were involved in the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, in which a group of people stole $17 million from the. Separating the Red and Blue. Even though they drove away with less than they had initially intended, they still had more than $17 million in hand. David GhanttRetweeted Iraqveteran8888 @Iraqveteran8888 Dec 9, 2022 Elect me President and I'll fire everyone, free Julian Assange, and pardon Edward Snowden. ABC7 Eyewitness News Watch Now What happens at the end of mastermind? After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. At the time it was thesecond largest bank heistin U.S. history. But of course, then they had to decorate that spectacular new space and so they spent tens of thousands of dollars on things like cigar store Indians, paintings of Elvis, and a bulldog dressed up like George Patton. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. Together with his wife, Chambers bought a new luxury home (upgrading from his mobile home), a BMW Z3, and some extravagant furnishings. Campbell used part of her share of the money to buy a Toyota Sienna minivan in two cash installments. Her sentence would've been ``substantially' less if she hadn't kept it, officials said. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. The pair were both from the United States but had lived in the Peloponnese region of Greece for the past few years. To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the Super Heists on CNBC on Monday at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Q: How do you tell prospective employers you once stole $17 million? 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. Steven Chambers, left, and David Scott Ghantt leave federal court. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or www.Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. Lindy Hop: The Dance That Defined The Golden Age of Jazz, Inside The Unsolved Disappearance Of Jennifer Kesse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of. He then proceeded to load about $17.3 million in cash (approximately $11 million of which was in $20 bills) into the back of a company van. Instead, the bandits just started throwing as much money as they could into the van until they couldnt fit anymore. Now looking back, with the life I have now, Ive got a great family, got a great kid. AI Chatbots are Even Scarier Than You Think, DeSantiss Educational Policies Come Right Out of the Fascist Playbook, Erase the Memory to Erase a People? I wasnt attracted to him or anything, but he was a nice guy, Campbell said. It's the little things like that that gnaw on you. Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. 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. Chambers had known enough to insist that no one blows through a ton of cash immediately after the robbery, but once he actually had his hands on the money, he couldnt follow his own advice. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM MASTERMIND MOVIE. Zach Galifianakis played David Scott Ghantt, with other roles played byOwen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. 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. 43-year-old Margret and her mother both died in 2012 . On the evening of October 4, 1997, one man loaded $17.3 million in cash from the vaults of Loomis, Fargo & Co. into the back of a van. The chief running joke in Masterminds is the Prince Valiant 'do gamely sported by Galifianakis as David Ghantt, . In November 1990, David married Margaret in San Diego, California. On Oct. 4, Ghantt sent home the employee he was training and disabled two security cameras near the vault in preparation for the heist. Pocketing $50,000 for himself, that man, named David Ghantt, hopped into a car of his own and headed towards Mexico. Also charged were several innocent relatives that the robbers had enlisted to help get safety deposit boxes in various banks. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. So he hatched a plan to rob his employers. hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? By comparison, Ghantt served seven years in prison and was fined $26,000. On the night of October 4, the plan went into action. Nous, Yahoo, faisons partie de la famille de marques Yahoo. After finding himself in prison he made a concious choice to do things differently. VIDEO. 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. Retro CharlotteFBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Dont worry, its not drug money.. Holding her hands behind her back, Michele Chambers was sentenced Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison for her role in the $17 million heist from Loomis, Fargo & Co. She was also ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution.It was the fourth-most severe sentence given in the case, which has 21 defendants. EDITORIAL. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. Over the next months, Ghantt, Campbell, and Chambers developed a plan. He was angry a lot. his wife-to-be. 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. David Ghantt was portrayed by Zackary Hatfield. All of the defendants except for one pleaded guilty and accepted their sentences. I was working sometimes 75-80 hours a week at $8.15 an hour. Its 90-minutes of mugging for the camera, but the only people who feel mugged are those that pay to see Masterminds. After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. Harper Beckham and her dad David Beckham dressed in matching black outfits as they headed to a Paris Fashion Week event being thrown by Harper's mom and David's wife Victoria . [1] Tips had led the FBI to begin monitoring Chambers's (and his wife's) activities, but it was not until the FBI recorded a phone call from Ghantt in Mexico that the final connection was made. During the hearing, Culler recounted his client's difficult personal life: her parents' divorce when she was 2 or 3 years old; a teenage stay in a Baptist Children's home; a teenage pregnancy; and various medical conditions. Question: Which do you regret more, stealing the money or getting caught? Across the border in Mexico, Ghantt was also living it up. All but one of the defendants pleaded guilty. Once the heat was off, Ghantt would return and they would split the haul evenly. Said Ghantt, one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Afterward, outside the courthouse, her parents said the length was about what she had expected. Please subscribe to keep reading. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. But last Oct. 4, when he still hadn't gotten home by 2:30 a.m., she called his parents in. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Nebraska cheerleader competes by herself at state competition, but crowd doesn't let her feel alone, Police identify victim who died Wednesday in Greensboro's 11th homicide of 2023, William Sturkey: Chapel Hill trustees 'hellbent' on winning campus culture wars, Rob Schofield: North Carolinas chronic public employee shortage wasnt an accident, KFC is bringing back a fan favorite after a nearly 10-year hiatus, Richard Groves: What the 'He Gets Us' media campaign says about the decline of Christianity, Two Things: Victim's family not surprised by no show; hospital wars in Greensboro and money well spent, Mark Elliott and Jeremy Rinker: Budget reductions at UNCG punish it for serving disadvantaged students, Samet: Guilford County wanted more black-owned businesses added to construction project after the bids were opened, Former Page High School teacher arrested on child sex charges, records show, Proposed rules for Airbnb, other short-term rentals advance in Greensboro, 'A bizarre case': Greensboro TikTok star found not guilty in fatal 2019 crash, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist proposes community hospital in Greensboro, Greensboro police officer involved in confrontation on Golden Gate Drive resigns, Jaydon Young's lessons of sacrifice mix with two-hour transfer, Virginia Tech and 2023 tournament. Besides wearing the ring, driving the BMW, and living in the new house, prosecutors say Michele Chambers helped others deposit millions of dollars in safe-deposit boxes in the area, and that she took $200,000 in cash into a Salisbury bank in November 1997 and came out with a $200,000 check. Officers responded just after 5 a.m. Wednesday to an area near the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Carolyn Coleman Way and found , "The Wall Street Journal just so happened to have a supportive op-ed ready to publish within hours of the meeting. Here, he amps up the most obnoxious excesses of his entire cast and lets their grating bad-improv skills run amok. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. 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. That 3-carat ring came back to haunt Michele Chambers at Tuesday's hearing. 33. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to . Prosecutors also resisted Culler's efforts to downplay Michele Chambers' role in the theft. 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. His partners, who planned to stay behind, agreed to send him his full cut of the money after the heat from investigators had died down. My name is David Scott Ghantt. I learned that I was an a--hole. The Election, U.S. Foreign Policy, And Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Lecture, Nate Parker on Rape Allegations: 'I Don't Feel Guilty'. It wasa painful process, but I learned to be happy with me and with what I've got. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Q: You say your time in federal prison changed you. The Loomis Fargo robbery was one of the largest heists in history, with $2 million in stolen funds still unaccounted for. A: I hate to think about what I'd be doing if I hadn't gotten caught. There is nothing of value in this movie. Even the outtakes during the credits are bad. Culler acknowledged that she had overheard her husband and co-defendant Kelly Campbell talk about the plan, ``but she thought it was fantasy world.'. A: I'm in dire need for some RO's barbecue and some Tony's Ice Cream. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Authorities say Steve and Michele Chambers moved from a mobile home into a $635,000 house three weeks after the theft. When asked what the dumbest thing was that Ghantt spent money on, he admitted: The 4 pairs of boots I bought in one day [shrug] what can I say they were nice and I was impulse shopping.. From Oct. 6 through Feb. 20, the couple made 47 deposits totaling $271,500 at a Belmont bank, and at. 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. Masterminds - Zach Galifianakis 'David Ghantt' [On-Set Interview]SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://goo.gl/SrrTlTSUBSCRIBE MOVIE TRAILERS: http://goo.gl/8WxGeDA night gu. On March 1, 1988, Mexican police arrested Ghantt at Playa del Carmen. 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. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. Everybody thinks being famous and being an actor is stupendous, and the money is fantastic, but they kind of live in afish bowl. Eventually, Ghantt would return to the United States and the full sum would be split up between the conspirators. 29 David Ghantt Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images. Meanwhile, Ghantt would take $50,000, as much as could legally be carried across the border without questions, and flee to Mexico. All rights reserved. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. David Bowie 's widow recently took to Instagram to post selfies, while promoting both her makeup brand and fashion line. And Ghantt hadnt really thought about the physical challenge of moving such a large sum of money. 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. Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. Chambers and his wife Michele moved out of a trailer and into a luxury mansion in a nice neighborhood. Before he decided to steal $17 million from the bank, Ghantt had worked for years as a relatively taciturn and compliant employee. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. As he later recalled about his life before the 1997 heist that changed his life forever: Prior to, I would have never even considered it but one day life kinda slapped me in the face. Chambers would then occasionally wire Ghantt money and see to his basic financial needs; when "the heat was off," Ghantt was to re-enter the U.S. and the money would be split up among all of the co-conspirators. [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]. 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. Finally, in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantts phone and he was arrested in Mexico. In October of 1997, I was a vault supervisor for armored truck company Loomis Fargo, when I made off with $17.3 million. I realized a lot of things that were wrong with me as a person. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. Inside the truck, they found Ghantt's ring and surmised this was a sign of Ghantt's intention to end his relationship with his wife. 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.. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Whisler said he didn't think those factors should result in a reduced sentence. 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. After meeting up with Chambers, Campbell, and some other co-conspirators, Ghantt hightailed it to Mexico with $50,000 in cash in his car. But after one visit, she asked a teller "How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds?" 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. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. David Ghantt spent 11 years in the military and now works as a film consultant on the side. But in addition to a wife,. A Comprehensive Guide. But because he still owes millions to the IRS, he couldnt be paid. Over the years many of his social . 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. Custom Content. 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.. 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. Fed up, exhausted, and seeing a way out, Ghantt agreed. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? Masterminds which opens nationwide today (though youd be hard pressed to know that given the decided lack of promotion) is proof again that all the talent in the world cannot salvage a bad script, and not even a good screenwriter can make up for terrible performances.