"I'd been told all my life, money will not make you happy," Kelly said. Michelle Chambers received seven years and eight months, while Steve Chambers was handed an 11-year sentence. His wife, Tammy, was as shocked as Loomis officials. Ghantt:It started out as a mental exercise and somewhere between the mental exercise and the actual event, it became serious. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. These days, the 52-year-old husband and father lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works at a heavy equipment rental agency. "I was unhappy with my life. Truth was, David wanted more than help leaving, he wanted company. Ghantt worked at Loomis Fargos regional office vault in Charlotte. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. You have to remember that it's Hollywood and they'll take what was a minor event and they'll blow it up and make it as funny as they can.". . It's one of the biggest jokes at the place. The top-ranked pie in North Carolina doesnt look like pie at all. Scary. We need to set up some way for me to get my money. She said, We got it all worked out. To celebrate Halloween, about seven of Steve's friends, including Eric Payne and Kelly, gathered for a party at Steve's house. In early September 1997, Kelly found herself chatting on the phone with a friend who still worked at Loomis, a 27-year-old man who, despite being married, had made no secret of the fact that he had a crush on her. 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. Ghantt was apprehended in Mexico and returned to the United States in custody. In that time, I realized most of my problems were because of me. Because lets be brutally honest: Theyre not wrong, okay? 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. Kelly says she underestimated the value of her life before the heist. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. They sweated, though the night was cool. . He'd even bragged that he'd killed people. He drove to the edge of the Loomis compound, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Health savings account and flexible spending account. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Eric watched. First, they loaded the cash into blue 55-gallon barrels, and then they moved the barrels into a rental van. Charlotte hotel chef who serves with a smile recognized as outstanding ambassador, Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a big brother and father to many in Charlotte, Home tours: This wired-up Weddington smart home has a pool big enough for the neighborhood. Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward after the theft. David told her he'd need help moving the money, getting a new ID and leaving the country. 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. He hated the sweet smell of the green ink, and the $8.15-an-hour salary. ", "I wouldn't do it. In real life: True. Is he telling the truth? . As soon as you put that first bag of stolen money in that van, theres no going back. The robbery of some $17 million quickly became one of the wildest bank heists of the last quarter century. At 6 that morning, FBI supervisor Rick Shaffer led 12 agents and several Gaston County police officers up a winding road on Cramer Mountain to Steve's home. shes now Miss USA. "I said, 'That's all they gave me,' " McKinney recalled. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force, Three Kansas City police officers who were shot while serving a search warrant have been released from the hospital, Officials say one passenger died when a business jet experienced severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. The only person not to plead guilty in the case, former Gastonia attorney Jeff Guller, ended up doing eight years for money laundering. And though she had been made night shift supervisor at Allied Security, she still felt she would never make the money she needed. By the time the month concluded, the couple had purchased a 7,000-square-foot stone mansion in a gated country club community. Kelly drove her pickup to a lot across the street from the Loomis building, on Suttle Avenue in Charlotte. The pager entry was 1-4-3. October was "a blast," he said. After years of reflection and time in prison to work on himself, Ghantt was able to find a way to a better version of himself. Though David had no criminal experience, he felt he could offer expert advice: He'd just finished reading a book on the FBI. What made her abandon an ordinary existence to commit this spectacular, doomed crime? He wouldn't give me the opportunity to say anything else. Ghantt ultimately agreed to the plan, largely, due to a mountain of credit-card debt and in hopes of changing his life for the better. A couple weeks pass, and I call again, Hey, Id like to get some more money. Things were spiraling fast. Question: Do you ever think you could have been killed? Then FBI agent Wydra watched Steve's wife, Michele, deposit about $8,000 at a Gaston County, N.C., bank. So the last third of the movie is almost entirely fiction. Back then, it was one of the hotspots for hiding money. Ghantt planned to live off the interest for the rest of his life. Because surprise! . He had just returned to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., when he agreed to talk about the heist, his life now and what went wrong when a group of friends who thought they could get away with stealing $17 million cash. ". He flip-flopped on the heist idea three or four times. Where was Ghantt? Federal prosecutors would ultimately charge 21 defendants in the case, including the Floyds, who were charged with (and pleaded guilty to) money laundering. But it didnt really hit me until later., On March 2nd, when the FBI agents walked up to Ghantt in Playa del Carmen and told him he was under arrest, Ghantt was relieved. Thomas Grant, who served three years in prison for bank larceny, paid off restitution of $70,000; brother Eric Grant paid all of his $26,000; as did David Craig, $40,000; and Dennis and Sandra Floyd; $27,000. Scott Grant said he hesitated, but agreed if no guns would be involved. But after she left, she reached back out to Ghantt and brought up what theyd talked about that day in the break room. Ghantt:I've always known that story had potential to be a comedy or a drama. . That week, the FBI designated the theft its 142nd "major case," putting it on a list--begun in the 1970s--that includes such other infamous crimes as the World Trade Center bombing. Was that really what it was about? All I needed was a change of pace.". I was looking at small sailboats and theyre not cheap, he tells me. Then another. Were others involved? Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. Then another. Our success depends on our team members, and that's why it's important for us to offer an employee benefits program that is not only extremely comprehensive but also one of the best in the industry. It was one of those things everyone (at Loomis Fargo) joked about, but in time, it became serious. Purchases included a pool table, jewelry (including a $43,000 diamond ring), a minivan, $20,000 worth of cigars, and the 7,000-square-foot home on the side of Cramer Mountain. Or that hed gotten lucky gambling. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Thatd probably been the best thing for me to do, really. I hope everyone has moved on. The name she gave the pup is apropos. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. As with Kelly, the worst blotch on 29-year-old Eric's record until now was a driving-while-intoxicated conviction. All were convicted. His assignment was to deliver the cash to David and keep him happy until they could find a way to kill him, McKinney said. So he convinced a local hoodlum in Mexico to try to kill Ghantt. Three weeks after the theft, Steve and Michele moved from their Lincoln County mobile home to a $635,000 house in a gated Cramerton, N.C., neighborhood. And so, he told her, Google my name. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. When we worked together [for Loomis], we'd joke about it. He took bus tours of Mayan ruins. Its everything thats coming north.. Thatd be the time to do it, Ghantt recalls. It's about the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery also known as the "hillbillly heist" the second largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. And it turned Steve into he thought he was Don Corleone all of a sudden.. In the first days after the arrests, agents recovered or accounted for all but about $2 million of the stolen money. And when everybody else voted to kill me, she voted with them, he explains. Scott Grant and Steve pulled up next to her in a Mazda. Throughout the multi-year-long case and subsequent trials, journalists often referred to Ghantt and the others as trailer trash and hillbillies. Clerk of Court Frank Johns of Charlotte. The figures can be astounding. It will be some time before she can commune with domestic animals again. Hes going to start bringing you money. Alright. They found Ghantts truck, and in it were his keys, some personal items and his wedding ring. You see, there's a reason Loomis Fargo used armored cars to move large amounts of cash. There used to be a consulate in Cancun. I was expecting her to kick me out of the house., Years later, after they married and had a child together, they watched a movie based on the whole ordeal. Yes, happy. To protect themselves, David and Steve didn't meet or talk. The phone rang: Kelly had a problem. "I work construction. I was just going to get the money into the van. When neighbors asked where they got their money, Steve said hed played in the NFL. He appeared happily matched with his high-spirited wife, Michele, and the two children from her first marriage. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . 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. Meanwhile, Michele Chambers was laughing and saying, repeatedly, "Look at all this money!" "Every time my conscience would start bothering me," Kelly recalled, "I'd smoke another joint and forget about it.". The agents tapped the phone, and it didnt take long to locate Ghantt after that. 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. Everything came crashing down on an early March morning in 1998. This was in the 1990s the Columbia Airport back then was closed at around 9:30, 10 oclock. She'd heard his stories of other successful schemes, like getting refunds on phony tax returns, or operating a loan shark business. He worked fueling airplanes, driving a forklift, and in 1994 he got a job as a vault superintendent at Loomis. In 2017, for example, Paul Burks of Lexington was ordered to pay $244 million to the victims of his worldwide Ponzi scheme, Zeek Rewards. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. . Thats one of my personality flaws. Hes well thought-out. Twelve hours later, at 6 that evening, Eric Payne drove a rented Budget van to his workplace, a graphics company on Performance Road in western Mecklenburg County called Reynolds & Reynolds, which was closed for the night and had a secluded parking lot where they intended to transfer the cash. Starting Pay Rate: $15.50 per hour Shift: Monday - Friday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Job Description As a Coin Processor, you work with your team to maintain inventory in our cash vaults for our Loomis customers. 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 . Kelly had resisted this suggestion before the heist: She and David were friends. So yeah, Im kind of proud of it.. He has no contact with any of those convicted with him in the crime, including his former wife, and doesn't plan to see the movie, he said. He placed stacks of currency on a cart and wheeled it to the van about 15 feet away, inside the building. See all of the stories here. The next day, Kelly drove back to Steve's mobile home to watch the news with Steve and Michele. No dry runs, no rehearsals. She was a wife and mother with two children. On the radio, the "John Boy and Billy" show played the song "Take the Money and Run. I just want people to go to the movies and have a good laugh, even if it's at my expense. 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. Almost 19 years after Ghantt and a group of friends from Gaston County pulled off one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history, the movie "Masterminds" will play up the caper for laughs.