Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. dvelopper et amliorer nos produits et services. [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. 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. Just the ability to come and go as I please and walk barefooted in the backyard means so much. Day in and day out, he drives an armored vehicle,. A: When I first got in, I thought, "What in my life has led me to this?" Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Ghantt added, I really enjoyed the movie. 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. Wyatt Redd is a freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. Afterward, outside the courthouse, her parents said the length was about what she had expected. Chambers, his wife, and several of their accomplices were arrested the next day. While Ghantt spent more than 6 1/2 years in federal prison, he said he usedthat time to"re-invent" himself. 25th anniversary of the incredible Loomis Fargo bank heist | wcnc.com The next day, Steve and Michelle Chambers, Kelly Campbell, and four others were arrested.[6]. At the time it was the second largest cash robbery ever to happen on US soil. Fed up, exhausted, and seeing a way out, Ghantt agreed. 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. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? So he hatched a plan to rob his employers. Going to prison helped me grow up as a human being. He completed his prison sentence in November 2006. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 30, 2016 |. 43-year-old Margret and her mother both died in 2012 . 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. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. She wondered how much she could deposit without attracting the attention of the FBI, so she decided to just ask the teller: How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds? she asked. As the FBI listened in to Chambers calls, they discovered that he was also planning to have Ghantt assassinated, hoping to keep all the money for himself. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. Michele Chambers declined to make a statement at the hearing. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. Masterminds | On-set visit with Zach Galifianakis 'David Ghantt' 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. 'Sister Wives': Everything We Know About David Woolley's Late Wife Two days later, when the FBI found the Loomis Fargo armored van, they discovered almost $3.3 million in cash left in the back of the van; it was later discovered that the thieves had miscalculated the sheer bulk of the small denomination currency, and that they simply left the cash that they could not take with them in the back of the van. As Predators' David Poile braces for retirement, wife reveals love story All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. Theyre meant to be trailer-park trash, but they come off as character experiments on a bad night at the Groundlings. 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 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. You take a movie like Oceans Eleven, the whole concept of that movie is so farfetched, its not even funny. 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. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could by law be taken across the border without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popular Yucatan Peninsula resort-island of Cozumel. Investigators also found Ghantt's pickup truck, abandoned at the warehouse. Across the border in Mexico, Ghantt was also living it up. It's been 20 years since the Loomis Fargo heist. - Charlotte Observer CREATIVE. The Election, U.S. Foreign Policy, And Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Lecture, Nate Parker on Rape Allegations: 'I Don't Feel Guilty'. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. Authorities began to hone in on the group and put a wire tap on Campbell's phones. Q: North Carolina native Zach Galifianakis portrayed you in "Masterminds." They took a lot of liberty with the story here and there. The morning after the height, employees of Loomis Fargo realized they couldnt open the vault. Ghantt was already married when he took part in the heist, to a woman named Tammy - who author Diamant described as "very nice." It is true, however, that she had no idea about the plot and that. Meanwhile, Ghantt would take $50,000, as much as could legally be carried across the border without questions, and flee to Mexico. Culler acknowledged that she had overheard her husband and co-defendant Kelly Campbell talk about the plan, ``but she thought it was fantasy world.'. He made his own self miserable. David GhanttRetweeted Iraqveteran8888 @Iraqveteran8888 Dec 9, 2022 Elect me President and I'll fire everyone, free Julian Assange, and pardon Edward Snowden. Some of the friends and family members received parole, while Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. [3][4] Its Charlotte office would be the victim of David Scott Ghantt and his confederates later that year. 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. 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. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. David Ghantt spent 11 years in the military and now works as a film consultant on the side. Wanneer u onze sites en apps gebruikt, gebruiken we, gebruikers authenticeren, veiligheidsmaatregelen toepassen en spam en misbruik voorkomen, en, gepersonaliseerde advertenties en content weergeven op basis van interesseprofielen, de effectiviteit meten van gepersonaliseerde advertenties en content, en, onze producten en services ontwikkelen en verbeteren. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Get the latest articles and test prep tips! Within two days, the investigators found the van with $3 million in cash and the security camera tapes inside. But his partners soon began to get greedy and were spending large amountswith Chambers and his wife, Michelle, even buying an exclusive mansion in cash. On the night of October 4, the plan went into action. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. But there was just one thing the group hadnt been counting on: the massive weight of that amount of cash. ', He explained the glorification and glamour often associated with bank heists and bank robberies in Hollywood films is far from reality. In fact, David Ghantt was about to commit the heist of a lifetime. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. Ghantt sent home a new employee and quickly loaded the money into the back of a bank van. He was angry a lot. But it was Ghantt, now 47 and living with his wife and daughter in Jacksonville, Florida,who actually took more than 2,000 pounds of cash and just drove away from his job. Q: How do you tell prospective employers you once stole $17 million? Nous, Yahoo, faisons partie de la famille de marques Yahoo. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. Campbell was receptive and brought the idea up to Ghantt. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. The true crime behind Asheville-based Galifianakis film Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. I figured it had to be me. The Book of Dave: A New Path After a $17 Million Misstep by David Steven Chambers, left, and David Scott Ghantt leave federal court. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. The painful part is that when you get caught, that the part of your brain that was trying to talk to you when you first started the robbery was right, and that's like a dump truck running over you. According to Campbell, Chambers could help Ghantt execute a massive cash robbery of the vault at Loomis Fargo in one night. He and his wife,. In 97 me and my wife were just barely scraping by, Ghantt recalled in Mondays episode. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. 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. The judge said he would recommend that Michele Chambers be given mental health treatment in prison. Jimmy Carter is a Liberal Saint Now, Was a War Criminal Then. Loomis Fargo employee David Ghantt and his partners nearly pulled off the perfect crime, but it would be their lavish spending, and an alleged murder plot, that would be their undoing. From the beginning, the FBIs prime suspect was David Ghantt. VIDEO. 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. Lorsque vous utilisez nos sites et applications, nous utilisons des, authentifier les utilisateurs, appliquer des mesures de scurit, empcher les spams et les abus; et. Looking back at the Loomis heist - Gaston Gazette By now, you probably know the names -- David Ghantt, Steve Chambers and his wife Michelle, and Kelly Campbell.