I said, Listen, You all need to get your shit together, or Im just going to walk over here to the government building and tell them who the fuck I am. That lit a little fire under her ass, for a bit.. This meant a bump in pay, up to $8.15 an hour. And if that gives people out there a little bit of hope, then Ive served my purpose on this earth.. He flew in an ultra-light plane. "Steve said, 'I think we ought to do it that night, when he drops off the van,' " Kelly recalled. Steve also offered $100,000 to his 26-year-old cousin. Why had he ever believed he'd get it? It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. Ghantt studied how to rob his employer . 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. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. There was a third person with them, too, a man named Eric Grant. Given the presence of the surveillance tapes and a gun belonging to Ghantt, they started with Ghantts phone and pager records and discovered a pattern they attributed to an accomplice. Ultimately, though, the heist wasnt Ghantts idea, which meant he didnt decide who else was involved. Its a farce that never farces; a comedy without jokes. Tags: Associated Press, courts, crime, North Carolina. About 10 frantic minutes later, Scott found the right key. Some amateur thieves might turn to movies and TV shows for lessons on criminal behavior. The authorities didn't know yet how much was missing from the armored-car company, but Steve did. So Im like, Can you get a move on with my money? After a couple of weeks passed, I get a phone call from Kelly: Okay, Brunos coming to you, blah, blah, blah. So I get a phone call from this guy, and I tell him where to meet me. They sweated, though the night was cool. I had to go in there and tell her the whole story, and she was real cool about it. By March, Steve Chambers decided he needed to do something more drastic about Ghantt, making plans to send a hitman to Mexico to silence him for good. Its 90-minutes of mugging for the camera, but the only people who feel mugged are those that pay to see Masterminds. They heard Michele brag about her $43,000 ring. 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. Time passed, and Campbell eventually quit her job at Loomis Fargo. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Zach always plays that bumbling kind of lunatic, but hes not, Ghantt says. Based on a true story, the premise itself is fascinating, which makes Masterminds all the more a waste. If you want me to leave, Ill leave. Then, Ghantt went into another room. I mean, cause greed is a funny animal. Instead of lobster, the man who stole $17 million survived on home-cooked pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. He approached a longtime friend, Eric Payne, who lived in a mobile home south of Belmont, N.C. Steve offered him $100,000 to help. This time, David told McKinney the truth. David quickly realized he was the intended victim. He has a regular life now, but 25 years ago, Ghantt was the mastermind behind the third-largest bank robbery in U.S. history. As soon as Corey left, I pretended like I was leaving. Kelly would only discover later that leading up to the heist, Steve had been writing bad checks, $17,000 worth, for which he would later be convicted. That first day in prison was scary, Ghantt said. The money was heavy. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' Kelly was no criminal. . That sounds like a lot of money until its compared to the $18,930,201.26 the group was ordered to pay. There were times when I drank really heavily.". Mexican police, Interpol officers and an FBI agent were watching him. Many of the lesser players in the conspiracy have been the most effective in paying their debts. Nah, it was always about the money, he told the agents. He couldn't even bear to stick around for the final tally--though when he left he didn't forget to take $6,000, the first cut of his expected $100,000 share. You can seize property. Was that really what it was about? Its kind of like that. The others sat in their cars across the street and watched him struggle to open the heavy gate. And so, he told her, Google my name. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. Now that Kelly believes she has found Jesus, she has become more analytical about her past. I threw you out, and then threw the parachute after you. The initials on the money wrapper belonged to a Loomis employee who hadn't worked there since before the heist. He gave the rest to Kelly. That led to better jobs, like the one at Loomis. She could walk under the trees, with the chickens and goats and dogs that live around her mobile home. I told the lead investigator I was glad to see him.. Three weeks later, the couple purchased, in cash, a $635,000 stone mansion. Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. Of course the problem was, the money belonged to someone else. Then another. It didnt take the local police long to put the pieces together. There, Scott and Eric paced the floor as Steve tried to calm them down. Sandra Floyd, Michele Chambers's mother, remembers the first time she saw the house. After a Gulf War stint in the Army, David got married in 1992. "He was in tears. They cursed. We spoke with the inside man, David Ghantt, to get the real story. But it was the rural, Southern backgrounds of many of the key players, along with the many botched twists and bungled turns, that led the media to dub it the hillbilly heist.. Theyre meant to be trailer-park trash, but they come off as character experiments on a bad night at the Groundlings. David, now 30, says he's sorry he abandoned his wife--who he says still loves him--and his family. For reasons that remain obscure, Robert spilled the beans to David. ", "I wouldn't do it. I knew that the news wouldnt break until later that morning. On Nov. 12, a confidential informant told the FBI about Steve Chambers's move from mobile home to mansion. At first, David Ghantt said, "I didn't take her seriously. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. At the end of October, Kelly was sentenced to 5 years 10 months in prison. "A lot of people out there had it worse than me, but . The next day, he was sitting next to FBI agent Mark Rozzi on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) During one overnight shift, a bumbling conspiracy of thieves just west of Charlotte stole more than $17 million from Loomis Fargo. So much so that one suspicious neighbor called the FBI. So its one thing to go from up here, thought, to action, he said. Her husband gave her a brown teddy bear. The pager entry was 1-4-3. They put up mauve wallpaper. Part 2: Channel 9 speaks with the man at the center of Loomis Fargo heist 25 years ago. Driving away, he said he felt a mix of fear, confidence and excitement that he outsmarted the FBI. To that end, Campbell brought in her childhood friend Steve Chambers, who was characterized in the local press as a small-time drug dealer and a local fence for stolen goods, to lead the team. When McKinney arrived in North Carolina, the plan had changed. Haz clic en Gestionar ajustes para obtener ms informacin y gestionar tus opciones. From my standpoint, it was just a business deal, Ghantt said. Access to this system is reviewed and violators will be subject to prosecution. . The teller, who hadn't asked, filed a "suspicious activity report." At that same time, Steve was growing sick of the calls to send more money to Ghantt, and was looking for a way to end that issue. She was like, Well, at least you had guts, he says. She never really worried about the moral end of it--she was focused only on getting what she wanted out of life, what so many others seemed to have in this booming part of the South. 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. He kept looking over his shoulder. In all, agents arrested 24 people in the heist. As he and Kelly met in a field behind a shooting range to refine the plan, she allowed him to believe she was falling for him. Here's what Floyd recalls: After two games of pool, Steve told him, "You know, we do a lot of gambling. "I was thinking, 'They aren't paying me enough,' " McKinney recalled. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I was going to snap," David said. One day, Campbell was speaking to an old friend named Steve Chambers. Or that it was an inheritance. He didn't want to abandon his parents. But after a year, they'll cut it down to two agents. Her marriage--at which she was making another ambivalent effort after multiple separations--and even the jobs she'd been able to get with a diploma couldn't come close to providing the kind of life she dreamed about, the life she felt she deserved: a house in the country, a swimming pool, and enough cash so she didn't need to rely on men. I learned something that was valuable at the time: Most criminals never leave a 250, maybe 300-mile circle from their home base. Where was Ghantt? FBI video shows the agency searching that home and finding drawers full of cash. Para obtener ms informacin sobre cmo utilizamos tus datos, consulta nuestra Poltica de privacidad y la Poltica de cookies. Steve and Michele invited everyone back for a Christmas party, where they gave Michele's stepfather a special gift--the pickup truck he'd always wanted. "She said, 'What would it take to convince you to do it?' From Mexico, David usually spoke with Kelly on the phone once a week, paying with calling cards. . The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. Given his position at the bank, hed be the one to pull off the robbery, and he intended to be ready. But few could have guessed how spectacularly the heist would go wrong after the criminals initially got away with it. Theres less security. All of the primary players got fined millions of dollars --for example, Kelly Campbell was hit with more than $4 million, an amount that she will never come close to paying. Get to me. Its that kind of excitement.. On his way out, he grabbed the surveillance video, hoping to cover his tracks. "But, I hate to admit it, it doesn't faze me one bit. In hindsight, it doesnt surprise me a bit, Ghantt says, a bitter laugh catching in his throat. They didn't know it, but they were leaving $3.3 million behind. Hed be in contact. Im on the phone with Kelly [Campbell], and Im like, Hey, I really was expecting a package to arrive. Not every agent has a case like that, he said. No dry runs, no rehearsals. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. Her only brush with the law had been a DUI arrest. Probably very egotistical of me, I thought, Yeah, sure, I can beat them, theyre college smart and thats about it, Ghantt said. Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. The plan was to maintain a low profile and wait for things to cool off, allowing Ghantt to return to the states and collect his cut. Ghantt didnt know the full extent of what was happening back home -- how that lay low plan turned into a flurry of extravagant spending. Charlotte Magazine even ran a feature story about the Loomis Fargo heist with the title, White Trash Crime. The headlines, however, never bothered Ghantt. She later hired someone to kill Ghantt, though the murder never took place. 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