People still laugh when they think of the "velvet Elvis" Chambershad in his Cramer Mountain mansion, or how his former wife showed upat a local bankto deposit wads of cash that she assured the teller was not "drug money.". 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.. 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You take a movie like Oceans Eleven, the whole concept of that movie is so farfetched, its not even funny. In 2020, the television show Super Heists portrayed the heist in Episode 3, "Van Full of Dollars". But before thehit could be carried out, the FBI swooped in and arrested Ghantt and the others. Elizabeth Poile was in 10th . David Ghantt discovers the true meaning of adventure far beyond his wildest dreams. The plan to rob Loomis Fargo was spawned by Campbell and her friend Steve Chambers, during a casual bonfire at Chambers home. AMA In October of 1997, I was a vault supervisor for armored truck company Loomis Fargo, when I made off with $17.3 million. Then you end up in a eight by ten cube and youre going to share that cube with two other people. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually . Ghantt @ChristyGhantt Dec 7, 2022 I just entered the @clxgaming Ra PC Giveaway! Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! The Current TikTok Ban Doesnt Go Far Enough. The thieves had simply abandoned whatever they couldnt carry away. START or Stop: Do Nuclear Weapons Treaties Matter? In total, 24 people were convicted. He was angry a lot. I felt cornered and one day the joking in the break room about robbing the place suddenly didnt seem so far-fetched.. You'd be amazed at how much stress you can relieve yourself from in your life by just taking 20 or so minutes a day for yourself and just letting the world go. Ghantt has never explained where that money went. They had initially agreed to control their spending for a year or two, in the belief that the government would vigorously track the spending habits of any and all suspects for at least a year before relenting. Galifianakis seems to be playing a character out of Dumb and Dumber 3: The Dumbening; Kristen Wiig plays what could only be described as her worst SNL character; Owen Wilson plays an Owen Wilson character; and Sudeikis plays a bumbling hitman who cant pull the trigger after he finds out his target shares the same name and birthdate, which is the dumbest twist since the Martha revelation in Batman vs. Superman. If so,check out some of these books on our AP History Exam reading list. After finding himself in prison he made a concious choice to do things differently. To make a successful getaway, Ghantt had to lift nearly 2,800 pounds of currency. 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. Now, here we are, two years later. 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. Now looking back, with the life I have now, Ive got a great family, got a great kid. Where ever it was, it is long gone now. He was like OK, yeah, we can do that, she recalled. Als u uw keuzes wilt aanpassen, klik dan op 'Privacyinstellingen beheren'. Day in and day out, he drives an armored vehicle,. 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. [15], "David Ghantt" redirects here. (I) bought jewelry, bought a van, Campbell recalled of her own spending. Unfortunately, he failed to disable the third camera. I wanted to make a drastic change and I went for it, Ghantt remembered later to the Gaston Gazette. All of the cash from the Loomis Fargo heist was recovered or accounted for, except for $2 million. 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. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. I realized a lot of things that were wrong with me as a person. He left his wedding ring behind and spent his days spending money on luxury hotels and scuba diving. Ask questions; get answers. 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? Chambers would hold on to most of the remaining cash and wire it to Ghantt as needed. As Predators' David Poile braces for retirement, his wife reveals their love story. Before he decided to steal $17 million from the bank, Ghantt had worked for years as a relatively taciturn and compliant employee. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females. He also took various measures to change his appearance, such as shaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he "looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. But as Ghantt admitted, the film took some liberties with specific details and characters to make the film funnier. The odds of you actually getting away with something these days is pretty damn slim. Naturally, Ghantt started to run out of cash and turned to Chambers, who was annoyed by his requests for more money. He was released in 2006. 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. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. [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. But after one visit, she asked a teller "How much can I deposit before you have to report it to the feds?" As it turns out, the heist did in fact go as well as you might expect. Three of the 21 defendants in the case haven't been sentenced. So he hatched a plan to rob his employers. He was also married. All rights reserved. At the time it was the second largest cash robbery ever to happen on US soil. Ghantt, in order to conserve this money, curtailed his spending. 33. Although the history of the predecessor Wells Fargo & Company dates back to 1852, Loomis Fargo & Company was established in 1997 by the consolidation of Wells Fargo Armored Service and Loomis Armored Inc.; the resulting corporation employed 8,500 people and provided armored transportation, cash handling services, and automatic teller machine maintenance. Q: You say your time in federal prison changed you. Ghantt, now 29, was a tall, decorated Persian Gulf War veteran whom early newspaper reports likened to Huckleberry Finn. A former co-worker told me, "Everybody has screwed up. Hes way smarter than youd think he would be because he tends to play Bozos. Ghantts wife was reportedly nothing like the bizarre, robotic fiance character in the film, for instance. The morning after the height, employees of Loomis Fargo realized they couldnt open the vault. I was working sometimes 75-80 hours a week at $8.15 an hour. 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. mesurer votre utilisation de nos sites et applications. 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. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. 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. The next day, Steve and Michelle Chambers, Kelly Campbell, and four others were arrested.[6]. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. I figured it had to be me. Dont worry, its not drug money.. David Ghantt : [voice-over] Steve was a petty thief, mostly known for stealing tiny wheelchairs from pediatric hospitals. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Chambers, it turned out, became the biggest source of evidence for the FBI. followed by "Don't worry, it is not drug money," the bank filled out a suspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI. Authorities say Steve and Michele Chambers moved from a mobile home into a $635,000 house three weeks after the theft. They took a lot of liberty with the story here and there. Parishioners filled the pews for a memorial mass held for Bishop David O'Connell Wednesday night at the St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights. A: I like the 47-year-old David Ghantt more than I did the 20-something David Ghantt. He had never been in trouble with the law. Prosecutors also resisted Culler's efforts to downplay Michele Chambers' role in the theft. Defense attorney Jim Griffin laid out his team's side of the case to the jury for more than two hours, arguing . 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. A Comprehensive Guide. Custom Content. Over the years many of his social . As a vault supervisor for Loomis Fargo, David had access to the vaults and all the cash within. 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. Ghantt added, I really enjoyed the movie. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM MASTERMIND MOVIE. There is nothing of value in this movie. [citation needed], The defendants were the targets of many barbed jokes in Charlotte and across the country, in part because of their extravagant spending. After years of working hard, the realisation hit . 4 million images and real time event coverage from coast to coast , ImageCollect is the only celebrity photo site you'll ever need. Pocketing $50,000 for himself, that man, named David Ghantt, hopped into a car of his own and headed towards Mexico. I started just chucking it as fast as I could, he said, adding the sweat was pouring off of me.. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Bubbling under the surface, however, was a deep frustration at the way he was treated. Michele Chambers 1998 BMW for sale following the prosecutions of the Loomis Fargo heist conspirators. An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank. How? Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. The couple was married for 22 years before her untimely death in 2012. Ghantt was joking in the breakroom with fellow Loomis Fargo employee Kelly Campbell. A: I hate to think about what I'd be doing if I hadn't gotten caught. ", The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery thats followed the easing of the coronavirus pandemic has produced several encouraging develo. Generally, the events of the film are fairly close to reality when they follow the broad details of the case. ", 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. So with the assistance of a co-worker and possible love interest as well as a small-time criminal, David Ghantt pulled off the then-second-largest cash heist in U.S. history. Some people screw up big like you, some people screw up small.". 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. 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. 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.