David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. 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. Meanwhile, David Ghantt was relaxing on a beach in Cozumel, Mexico. 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, To find out more about how the thieves got caught and how long they landed behind bars, tune in the. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. I did get to meet him. In total, 24 people were convicted. Collections. In spite of Chambers assurance that the money was, you know, totally not illegally acquired, the teller remained suspicious, especially because the stacks of cash still had Loomis Fargo wrappers on them. There was also no dramatic showdown between Chambers and Ghantt as the movie suggests. I didnt even have a real home life because I was never there. 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. Investigators considered Ghantt to be the prime suspect almost from the beginning. ``This defendant was second to Steve Chambers in (benefiting) from the crime,' he said. Anonymous tips had the FBI monitoring Chambers calls. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. 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. He made his own self miserable. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. Campbell and Chambers made themselves easy to catch, what with their lavish spending. Kelly Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced in October. 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. My Proof: https://twitter.com/DavidGhantt/status/827476087596789760, My AMA time is up now, but thank you all for your participation in the Ask Me Anything session :-), New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, https://twitter.com/DavidGhantt/status/827476087596789760. Q: Do you appreciate your normal life now more than you would if you hadn't spent years in prison? No rift here! 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. 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. Do you still have contact with him? My name is David Scott Ghantt. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. Culler acknowledged that she had overheard her husband and co-defendant Kelly Campbell talk about the plan, ``but she thought it was fantasy world.'. Jimmy Carter is a Liberal Saint Now, Was a War Criminal Then. Masterminds is an atrociously bad comedy, and absolutely everyone is to blame. The two struck up a friendship during work that would continue after Campbell left the company. 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. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. A: I'm in dire need for some RO's barbecue and some Tony's Ice Cream. [1], Steven Chambers finished serving his sentence in November 2006. I mean, thats pretty much why I did it. As Campbell would later explain, If David got killed, there couldnt be any finger pointing. For the New York State assemblyman, see. Eventually, Ghantt called in from Mexico, seeking more money, and the FBI officially recognized Chambers as a co-conspirator. I learned that I was an a--hole. David Ghantt : [voice-over] Steve was a petty thief, mostly known for stealing tiny wheelchairs from pediatric hospitals. A Comprehensive Guide. Pocketing $50,000 for himself, that man, named David Ghantt, hopped into a car of his own and headed towards Mexico. During the next few months they bought a BMW-Z3 roadster and tens of thousands of dollars in antiques, furniture and decorations. 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. Als u uw keuzes wilt aanpassen, klik dan op 'Privacyinstellingen beheren'. ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score, How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, Is the ACT easier than the SAT? dvelopper et amliorer nos produits et services. 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.. They left behind the cash they couldnt fit in their cars. In November 1990, David married Margaret in San Diego, California. Zach Galifianakis played David Scott Ghantt, with other roles played byOwen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon. I stole $17 million, and Zach Galifianakis played me in a movie. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. #CLXGaming#CLXRa#evokethegods 1 2 David Ghantt struck up a relationship with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell, and they continued to maintain contact even after Campbell left the company. 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. Unfortunately, he failed to disable the third camera. He was also married. 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. Prosecutors also resisted Culler's efforts to downplay Michele Chambers' role in the theft. Ill never pay it off on my paycheck, Ghantt said. 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. On March 12, a Charlotte grand jury indicted the eight co-conspirators for bank larceny and money laundering; the latter offense was included because of how they spent the stolen money. Chambers promised to wire him money in Mexico until the investigation blew over and Ghantt could return to North Carolina. But last Oct. 4, when he still hadn't gotten home by 2:30 a.m., she called his parents in. He and his wife,. Ghantt added, I really enjoyed the movie. Although the FBI investigation was able to quickly connect Ghantt to Campbell, connecting Ghantt to Chambers was a more difficult task. David Ghantt was the vault supervisor for Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored cars, which managed the transportation of large sums of cash between banks in North Carolina. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. Her reaction seems so far away now, all these years and a Hall of Fame career later. [3][4] Its Charlotte office would be the victim of David Scott Ghantt and his confederates later that year. At the time it was thesecond largest bank heistin U.S. history. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The Proposed TikTok Ban Goes Too Far. AMA In October of 1997, I was a vault supervisor for armored truck company Loomis Fargo, when I made off with $17.3 million. Si vous souhaitez personnaliser vos choix, cliquez sur Grer les paramtres de confidentialit. 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. 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 called the police, who brought in the FBI, classifying the heist as a bank robbery. But because he still owes millions to the IRS, he couldnt be paid. 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. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. Both were involved in the second-largest cash heist in U.S. history, in which a group of people stole $17 million from the. Former Cramerton Police Chief David Young soon got wind of the Chambers excessive spending spree and reached out to the FBI. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! 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. 43-year-old Margret and her mother both died in 2012 . The FBI continues to search for a missing $2 million from the theft. Chambers was always considered the "mastermind" behind the theft, but he doesn't talkmuch about his Loomis heist days, not even when actor Owen Wilson portrayed him in the 2016comedy about the heist titled"Masterminds.". Will Mcintyre/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. And Ghantt hadnt really thought about the physical challenge of moving such a large sum of money. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. (Ghantt works as a heavy machine operator in the construction industry.). At the time it was the second largest cash robbery ever to happen on US soil. Ghantts wife was reportedly nothing like the bizarre, robotic fiance character in the film, for instance. We were in Old Fortwhen they were shooting the movie and went out to eat. All but one of the indicted pleaded guilty. 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. On March 1, 1988, Mexican police arrested Ghantt at Playa del Carmen. The problem with the movie, however, is that the talented cast had no idea what the hell they were trying to do. Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. 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. A lot of people ask me, Oh, do you have any regrets? No, not really. 29 David Ghantt Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images. Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt seven years and eight months because she had violated several bond conditions. And with that, David Ghantt took off for Mexico. Philosophically, now looking back I wouldnt be who I am now if I hadnt gone through all that, said David Scott Ghantt in an interview with the Observer. The odds of you actually getting away with something these days is pretty damn slim. 5 min read. 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. Playing upon David's obvious feelings for her, Kelly is the . 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. David Ghantt And The Loomis Fargo Heist: The Outrageous True Story. 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 . But Ghantt has been open about what he did and how he believes it changed him for the better. his wife-to-be. This article will teach you more about the SAT subject testsasync src='https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js' and help you decide whether you should take them. Then check out another bank robber who inspired a movie, John Wojtowicz. 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. BBC Motion Gallery. 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. Because the money in the vault was largely from banks, the crime was technically a bank robbery and thus a federal offense. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. All of the defendants except for one pleaded guilty and accepted their sentences. Some of the friends and family members received parole, while Ghantt was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. Back then all I really wanted to do was just, I wanted to change my life. Please subscribe to keep reading. After this look at David Ghantt and the Loomis Fargo heist, read about a more successful robbery, the Antwerp diamond heist. Thats the big thing. An FBI criminal investigation ultimately resulted in the arrest and conviction of eight people directly involved in the heist, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them, and the recovery of approximately 88% of the stolen money. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. The judge said he would recommend that Michele Chambers be given mental health treatment in prison. 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. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it, Ghantt remembered later to the Gaston Gazette. Wij, Yahoo, maken deel uit van de Yahoo-merkenfamilie. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. Victoria Beckham's family were on hand as she debuted her latest collection at Paris Fashion Week on March 3, including her and husband David Beckham's oldest child, Brooklyn Beckham . Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. mesurer votre utilisation de nos sites et applications. Director Jared Hess Writers Chris Bowman (screenplay) Hubbel Palmer (screenplay) Emily Spivey (screenplay) Stars Zach Galifianakis Kristen Wiig Owen Wilson Campbell left her job in the summer of 1997, but she would later use Ghantts feelings for her to her own advantage to get him to agree to carry out the multi-million-dollar heist. The Loomis Fargo robbery was one of the largest heists in history, with $2 million in stolen funds still unaccounted for. Vous pouvez modifier vos choix tout moment en cliquant sur le lien Tableau de bord sur la vie prive prsent sur nos sites et dans nos applications. afficher des publicits et des contenus personnaliss en fonction de vos profils de centres dintrt; mesurer lefficacit des publicits et contenus personnaliss; et. Chambers, who made an ill-fated decision to buy a home in the gated Cramer Mountain community with his newfound wealth, now runsa gym on Lowell-Bethesda Road. Instead, the bandits just started throwing as much money as they could into the van until they couldnt fit anymore. Just days after agreeing to the plan, the group set a day to carry out the robbery. All rights reserved. It was nearly the perfect crime, but while Ghantt fled to Mexico to lay low, his partners lavish spendingand their own alleged plans for murderwould ultimately be the groups demise. In February 2009 the Associated Press reported that Chambers had chosen to describe himself as "changed". Two days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. The move bought him a little extra time to make his escape. Ghantt and seven others eventually pleaded guilty in federal court to charges directly related to one of the largest cash heists in history while more than a dozen other family members, friends and associates of those involved in the theft were found guilty of related charges, including money laundering. But even though he worked for a company that regularly moved millions of dollars, David Ghantt himself was underpaid. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Thats going to be your life for quite some time, typically. ``I'm glad she didn't get nine years,' said Sandra Floyd, her mother. . He had never been in trouble with the law. Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. David Bowie 's widow recently took to Instagram to post selfies, while promoting both her makeup brand and fashion line. The Current TikTok Ban Doesnt Go Far Enough. If I could get far enough away in a very short amount of time, my odds of getting away with it were pretty high, Ghantt said. I didnt even know about it and overlooked it, he said. START or Stop: Do Nuclear Weapons Treaties Matter? Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. But before thehit could be carried out, the FBI swooped in and arrested Ghantt and the others. While Ghantt spent more than 6 1/2 years in federal prison, he said he usedthat time to"re-invent" himself. Steve Chambers and his wife (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) were a little more difficult to connect to the heist. While making only eight dollars an hour in his role as supervisor, Ghantt decided it was time to do something: I was unhappy with my life. They took a lot of liberty with the story here and there. FBI security footage of David Ghantt in the midst of the Loomis Fargo heist. Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. Then Michele made a trip to the bank. This article will teach you more about the SAT subject tests. Its gone! The next day, Steve and Michelle Chambers, Kelly Campbell, and four others were arrested.[6]. Ghantt was. It was over. 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. 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. 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[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. The FBI quickly connected Ghantt to Campbell, who was a former Loomis Fargo employee. You've decided to give up on a part of your life. 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. I knew that if we could stay off the radar for about a year, we could basically live a vacation life, Ghantt said. Meanwhile, Ghantt would take $50,000, as much as could legally be carried across the border without questions, and flee to Mexico. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. But neither of those things would matter after he met Kelly Campbell. After years of working hard, the realisation hit . Todd Williamson/Getty ImagesDavid Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. 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. 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. There is nothing of value in this movie. How? Her husband, Steve Chambers, whom prosecutors have called the main defendant, began serving an 11-year sentence earlier this year. Authorities say Steve. 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Did you know that the SAT offers subject exams, too? Degrowth or Debunk: Do Degrowth proponents have a strategy? The additions come as KFC recently removed some menu items, including wings, popcorn chicken and cookies, to make room for new additions. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. 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. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. A comedy film called Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist and starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis, was released in 2016. Over the years many of his social . When I interviewed for this job about three years ago, I told (my boss) that I had some dirt in my background, and if he went digging for it, he would find it. . 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. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. Two of them, Mike and Kim Goodman, are scheduled to be sentenced today. Chambers was a small-time crook who suggested to Campbell that they rob Loomis Fargo. I realized a lot of things that were wrong with me as a person. David Ghantt was portrayed by Zackary Hatfield.
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