Hes way smarter than youd think he would be because he tends to play Bozos. Playing upon David's obvious feelings for her, Kelly is the . Project #ShowUs. He stayed at a luxury hotel and took scuba diving lesson. Q: Your troubles were self-inflicted, but you seem happy. 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. Two days after the heist, the FBI found the missing van with $3.3 million of cash left in it. 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. Youre better at planning bank heists than David Ghantt. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Ten days later, the group was indicted for bank larceny and money laundering. 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. Now looking back, with the life I have now, Ive got a great family, got a great kid. Chambers had no intention of following those rules, believing the FBI would never connect him to Ghantt. 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. 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. I learned that I was an a--hole. The move bought him a little extra time to make his escape. 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. 20 years ago,on the night ofOctober 4, 1997, David Scott Ghantt loaded $17.3 million of cash from the bank vault in Charlotte, North Carolina he was employed to supervise into a van. You can't get barbecue slaw in this hedonistic state (Florida), and there's nowhere to get real ice cream here like Tony's. Michele Chambers declined to make a statement at the hearing. On Oct. 4, 1997, former Kings Mountain resident David Scott Ghantt finished his shift as a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo in Charlotte. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. 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. Ghantt reported to Chambers that his supply of money was running low, but Chambers sent Ghantt just $8,000. The missing couple were identified as David Harrison Robinson and his wife Lucretia Robinson. 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. All rights reserved. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. Going to prison helped me grow up as a human being. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. One of the best ways to learn more about U.S. history is to make sure youre taking history classes. Now, here we are, two years later. Chambers wife, Michelle, bought a minivan in cash and began taking frequent trips to the bank to make deposits. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. 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 felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. From there, the money was moved from the company vehicle to private vehicles. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such as scuba diving and parasailing. Ghantt was. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. It was an open-and-shut case and all authorities had to do now was to find the culprit and identify Ghantts accomplices. 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. David Ghantt attends the after party for the Premiere Of Relativity Media's "Masterminds" on September 26, 2016 in Hollywood, California. 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.. We were in Old Fortwhen they were shooting the movie and went out to eat. Her reaction seems so far away now, all these years and a Hall of Fame career later. So Chambers decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt. In the end, eight co-conspirators were indicted for the Loomis Fargo heist. The next day, the Chambers, Campbell, and some other notable parties were arrested in Charlotte. But thanks in part to the film, the outlandish story of David Ghannt and the Loomis Fargo heist will surely live on for years to come. 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. At the time it was thesecond largest bank heistin U.S. history. David Scott Ghantt: Vault Supervisor David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. Q: You came to the North Carolina mountains during Hurricane Irma, but what do you miss about Gastonia? On Oct. 5, 1997, Ghantt carried out the heist during his regular shift after sending another employee home, stealing more than $17 million from the bank vault. Masterminds - Zach Galifianakis 'David Ghantt' [On-Set Interview]SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://goo.gl/SrrTlTSUBSCRIBE MOVIE TRAILERS: http://goo.gl/8WxGeDA night gu. 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. 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. The FBI continues to search for a missing $2 million from the theft. [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. 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. You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or www.Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin. David Scott Ghantt was the vault supervisor at the regional branch of Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. 4 million images and real time event coverage from coast to coast , ImageCollect is the only celebrity photo site you'll ever need. David Ghantt, a Gulf War veteran, had never been in trouble with the law. Degrowth or Debunk: Do Degrowth proponents have a strategy? Just the ability to come and go as I please and walk barefooted in the backyard means so much. Als u niet wilt dat wij en onze partners cookies en persoonsgegevens voor deze aanvullende doeleinden gebruiken, klik dan op 'Alles weigeren'. All of the defendants except for one pleaded guilty and accepted their sentences. 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. In February 2009 the Associated Press reported that Chambers had chosen to describe himself as "changed". And, with the help of several others David made off with $17.3 million dollars, 11 million of which was in 20's. [citation needed], The defendants were the targets of many barbed jokes in Charlotte and across the country, in part because of their extravagant spending. David Bragg . [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]. 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. [citation needed], It was later confirmed by the FBI that more than 88% of the stolen cash had been located or otherwise accounted for. That suspicion was immediately confirmed by a quick glance at the security camera footage that showed Ghantt doing a little dance after loading all the cash into the van. 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. Hes a great person. The pair began to daydream about whether they could really pull off the heist. Authorities say Steve and Michele Chambers moved from a mobile home into a $635,000 house three weeks after the theft. ", 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. 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By then, the FBI had become greatly concerned for Ghantt's personal safety; they had learned that Chambers had plotted to have Ghantt killed in a murder for hire scheme using a "hit man" named Michael McKinney. He was angry a lot. 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. 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. Here's whatGhantt says now about the heist that madethe "Cramer Mountain Hillbillies" famous and changed him forever. 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. I work construction. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. Its kind of out of sight, out of mind, she said of the reasoning. 5 min read. I was working sometimes 75-80 hours a week at $8.15 an hour. . Over the years many of his social . Chambers was a small-time crook who suggested to Campbell that they rob Loomis Fargo. Ghantt added, I really enjoyed the movie. Once the hitman Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldnt bring himself to kill Ghantt. Three of the 21 defendants in the case haven't been sentenced. A: Zach and I have a runningtext conversation going, but he's very busy. Of course, I went on a spending spree. Q: How do you tell prospective employers you once stole $17 million? The Loomis Fargo robbery was one of the largest heists in history, with $2 million in stolen funds still unaccounted for. Robbing the 7-Eleven and getting $40 bucks and a pack of Marlboros was not for me. Answer: The painful one is getting caught. Ghantt and his compatriots, it turns out, had underestimated how bulky money is. so make sure youre taking the right ones for you. Federal Judge Graham Mullen sentenced her to between those lengths. They kept several furnishings from the previous owners, including a painting of Elvis Presley on black velvet. 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.
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