(suspenseful music) (dramatic music) - [Narrator] On an
October evening in 1997, a Loomis Fargo employee was tired of waiting for the good life, he put in motion his own
get rich quick scheme, disappearing with over $17
million in Loomis's cash. The robbery sparked an
international man hunt as the FBI struggled to recover the money and bring the thief and
his gang to justice. (gunshot fires) (mysterious music) (clock ticking) (explosion booms) (type writer clicking) (operators chattering) At 7:15 AM on Sunday
morning, October 5th, 1997, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
North Carolina Police received a call from a
woman named Tammy Ghantt, she told police her husband, David hadn't returned home from his job at the Loomis
Fargo warehouse the night before and she was concerned. (suspenseful music) The Charlotte Police Department
dispatched an officer to investigate. Upon arriving at Loomis Fargo, the patrolman surveyed the scene. David Ghantt's pickup truck was parked outside the warehouse gate, the chain link fence was open, (suspenseful music) so was the warehouse door. Something appeared to be terribly wrong. The officer contacted dispatch. (suspenseful music) The Charlotte Police
notified Loomis Fargo, and a supervisor arrived
to try and sort out what had happened. - What did you find is missing- - [Narrator] David Ghantt
was nowhere to be found. The vault was locked, but all the keys were missing
along with a company van. There were no signs of forced entry. (men speaking faintly) - [Man] Let's check out the video and see what we got. - [Man] Okay. All good. - [Narrator] The supervisor told police that Ghantt work the night before and was scheduled to close up the vault along with a trainee. He took the police officer
to the security center, there he found the videotapes from two of the security
cameras' VCRs had been taken. In a second cabinet, he found a VCR with its
tape still recording. (group conversing faintly) There, on this tape, was vault
supervisor, David Ghantt, emptying the vault. - [Man] I can't believe it, it's David Ghantt! - [Narrator] Loomis had been robbed. (dramatic music) Because the money stolen from Loomis Fargo belonged to federally insured banks, the crime was a federal offense. The FBI was called in. (agents chattering) At the time the agents arrived, they knew only that vault
supervisor David Ghantt, a Loomis Fargo armored van and an unknown amount of money from the vault were all missing. - [Agent] Of course we had to, you know, I had to talk to him about that. - [Narrator] Crime scene
technicians processed the facility. It was a puzzling crime scene according to Charlotte
FBI agent, Mark Rozzi. - What you noticed is a
lack of anything noticeable. It's not a crime scene in which
there are bodies and blood, and things strewn all about, it's just a big, empty looking warehouse. You don't know how much money is missing till you get in the vault. And then you sort of gather your thoughts and gather the agents to say, "What do we know? And where do we go from here?" (drill whirring) - [Narrator] Because all
the keys were missing, Loomis officials were locked
out of their own vault; to learn what happened, they would have to break in. - Well, obviously your concern immediately is with the missing
body, with David Ghantt. Was he abducted? Was he harmed? Was he forced to do
something against his will? Is he still on the premise? Is he locked inside the vault. - [Man] Let's get in here. (suspenseful music) (vault door clanking) - [Narrator] But David
Ghantt wasn't in the fault. In fact, nothing was in the vault. Ghantt had taken everything. FBI agent, John Wydra. - We're talking about
2,800 pounds in currency, mostly $20 bills. They used the twenties to
stack the ATM machines, so most of it was in $20 bills. Almost $11 million in
$20 bills was missing. It was a total of $17 million, $17.3 million that turned up missing. (suspenseful music) - [Agent] 6478- - [Narrator] This money
would be impossible to trace. None of the cash was marked, it had come from general circulation and the serial numbers on the
bills were non sequential. (dramatic music) With nothing to look at and
no clues inside the warehouse, the investigators hoped the
robbers left some clue outside. The agents started by looking
at David Ghantt's truck. They found something
interesting in the ashtray, a wedding ring. - When we found David's
wedding band in his truck, the question arose, "Is David sending us a signal? Is he trying to tell
us that he has cut ties with his loved ones, that he's moving on, that he's starting a new life?" (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The next day
at the Charlotte offices of the FBI, agents began to piece together what little they knew about the crime. After a weekend of investigating, all they learned was the David Ghantt, a van and a little over $17
million in untraceable bills disappeared during or
after Ghantt's work shift the day before. It was not a great way to
start an investigation. (agents chattering) With a 24 hour headstart, David Ghantt could be anywhere by now. (door knocks) (suspenseful music) If the FBI ever hoped to
find the missing cash, they needed to find Ghantt fast. - I'm Special Agent Holmes,
this is Special Agent- - [Narrator] Agents started by
talking with his wife, Tammy, and one of David's sisters. They hoped some detail
of his personal life would give them some idea
why he pulled the heist, who might have helped him and, most importantly, where he was.
- Do you know of anybody, any relatives, any friends? - [Narrator] David's wife, Tammy, gave the FBI a lot of
background information on her husband. (agent speaking faintly) - No! Here, look- - [Narrator] She told them she
hadn't noticed anything odd about David's behavior before the robbery. She explained that money was tight and the couple lived simply, but had run up some credit card debt. Tammy told the agents she kept a close eye on the bottom line and kept David on a strict budget. David had been working a lot of long hours to try and get ahead of their bills. Tammy couldn't believe
he was involved in this and was certain someone must
have forced him to do it. She feared he had been
kidnapped or maybe worse. (overlapping chatter) - You go through David
Scott Ghantt's routine, and what you find out is
there is no noticeable blip on the screen. He was acting the way
that you would expect any normal person who
should have returned home the following day to act. He went out to dinner with his wife, he helped put the groceries away, he had made his dental appointment. He had been living life
just as he had lived it every other day prior to this crime. So there was nothing immediate
that jumped out that said, "Here's the indicator. This is gonna tell us why he did it, who he did it with and
where he's gone to," it just wasn't there. (dramatic music) (phone ringing) - [Narrator] To find David Ghantt, the authorities needed to
circulate his photograph and register him with the
National Crime Information Center computer system, but to do that they needed to indict him. United States Attorney Mark
Calloway prosecuted the case. - Because they had David Ghantt on tape taking the money out of Loomis, we had a grand jury that
happened to be sitting on Monday and we were able to indict him
for the larceny the next day. So two days, less than
48 hours after the theft, David Ghantt was indicted for it. - [Narrator] On the Monday
following that theft, the media learned of the story. (dramatic music) The FBI launched a nationwide manhunt as part of the investigation
they were now calling Operation Charloot. The bureau now had a catchy
name for the investigation, but they still had no
idea where David Ghantt and the missing $17 million had gone. Agents secured the
airports and bus stations, they circulated photos of David Ghantt and asked anyone who saw him to contact the authorities immediately. Because David Ghantt had
taken over a ton of cash, the FBI knew he would need a
considerable amount of space to transport and store all the money. They checked the rental car
and truck agencies in town to see if anyone fitting
against description might have rented a truck, (suspenseful music) they came up empty. To the agents in the
Charlotte office of the FBI, this investigation began
to seem very familiar. In 1997, in Jacksonville, Florida, another Loomis Fargo
employee emptied a vault of over $18 million in cash. Special agent in charge, William Perry, worked the previous investigation. - And there was an earlier
theft from a facility in Jacksonville that
Charlotte division of the FBI had been involved in it, as a matter of fact recovered the money up in the Asheville area. So we were very concerned about the fact that something similar had happened and it would be important for us to find out the location
quickly of where the money had been transported to
and where the van was. In that particular case in Jacksonville, they had used a storage facility, so it was an idea, too, that we would be looking
for a storage facility similar to that. - [Narrator] In the
Jacksonville, Florida heist, the thief stashed the
money in North Carolina. (suspenseful music) Thinking Ghantt may have
copied his fellow employee, FBI agents checked public
storage facilities, (suspenseful music) they found nothing. The FBI hit a dead end. It appeared David Ghantt
had simply vanished and taken a ton of cash with him. (dramatic music) The FBI looked back to try and uncover any suspicious activity
in and out of the city on the weekend of the heist. (race cars droning) This was difficult
because Charlotte hosted the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on the weekend the heist occurred. - Well, now all of a sudden
you've got hundreds of thousands of out-of-town people, not all of whom use their
actual identification when they're renting cars
or staying at hotels, and you have to go through this list and decide who's legitimate
and has a reason to be there, and who might be David
Scott Ghantt's alias or one of his partners. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] David Ghantt's
accomplices, if there were any, could have been any one
of the thousands of people who choked the interstates
in and around Charlotte on race weekend. When not thinking of David
Ghantt as a perpetrator, the FBI feared for his safety. - You've got a missing body. And with any missing body, you've got to weigh up the possibility that this person's either in danger or may have been killed. And then again, feeling that more likely than not he would have had accomplices
to move that amount of money, then the question is, he's a known, the
accomplices are an unknown, what's to stop them from knocking him off? (indistinct radio) - [Narrator] The FBI knew
they had to find David Ghantt before his accomplices did, but they didn't even know where to look. (suspenseful music) Late Monday afternoon, two
days after Ghantt disappeared, authorities finally got a break. A man cutting grass discovered
the unmarked Loomis van, it was in the woods less than 10 miles from the Loomis warehouse. - [Agent] They're locked up. - [Narrator] The van was Locked. - It looks like we got
something inside here. - Oh my goodness!
- Yes, sir! - [Narrator] Loomis still
hadn't the stolen keys, so the FBI had to tow it
to their processing center and wait for a locksmith to break it open. Inside, they were shocked to find the van held a considerable amount of cash. Agents counted the
small denomination bills Ghantt had left behind, it totaled a not
insignificant $3.3 million. Also in the van where the two
missing surveillance tapes from the Loomis security office, Ghantt's Loomis issued piston
and both sets of vault keys. The FBI could only guess
as to why over $3 million had been abandoned. Perhaps the thieves got scared, or maybe they ran out of
time or physical space to put the money, or the energy to move it. - Good job! - [Narrator] As for the video tapes, the FBI tried to read the evidence. - You find the videotapes in
the van, you say to yourself, "Okay, we left one behind
at the Loomis facility, and that could have been a mistake, but this obviously was not a mistake. So who's trying to tell us what?" Is David Ghantt telling us, "Here's the videotapes, I did it. Good luck trying to catch me"? or is it as partner saying, "David Ghantt did it,
you need to go find him," to steer us away from whoever
these unknown partners were? - [Narrator] The FBI had
indeed found the missing van and some of the missing Loomis money, but they were no closer
to finding David Ghantt or his suspected accomplices, and $14 million was still
out there somewhere. Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the East Coast's fastest growing centers of banking. On any given day, hundreds of millions of dollars pass through the Charlotte area. (suspenseful music) In October of 1997, Loomis
Fargo employee, David Ghantt, took some of those millions for himself. He walked out of the
Charlotte Loomis Fargo office with $17 million and disappeared. (suspenseful music) The FBI suspected that
Ghantt hadn't acted alone, but they couldn't be sure. (money machine rattling) Ghantt simply vanished and his
accomplices, if he had any, were completely unknown. The FBI hoped that some
clue of his whereabouts would surface as they
looked into his background. The Charlotte agents compiled
lists of Loomis employees to be interviewed, past and present. - Yeah, something came
from this guy (indistinct), he's a new employee. - [Narrator] They started by talking with Ghantt's supervisor and
the trainee who worked with him the night of the heist. - Never noticed him doing anything. - [Narrator] The trainee
told them David sent him home at the end of his shift and
locked up the vault himself. - That's the last I saw of him. (man speaking faintly) - [Narrator] Ghantt's
supervisor told the FBI Ghantt worked at Loomis for several years and was an average employee. He'd been working a lot of overtime and had recently been
promoted to vault supervisor, it was a job he didn't perform very well. (dramatic music) (man speaking faintly) David left some cash unattended and had been reprimanded severely. He was nearly fired.
- If this happens again, you will be dismissed. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] In an effort to learn if Ghantt had any accomplices, the FBI broadened their search and interviewed anyone
who had come in contact with David Ghantt before the heist. Special agent in charge, William Perry. - We weren't really looking
for what type of person could have done the heist 'cause we knew the
person that did the heist it was Mr. Ghantt. Who his accomplices were
was the challenge for us. Typically in something like that, it's a matter of elimination
of people that we can identify that know him from his past, that were fellow employees, friends, social acquaintances,
relatives, or otherwise. - [Narrator] The FBI spoke with
over 100 people in two days, looking for anything that might lead them to Ghantt's accomplices or give them some clue as to
why he'd pulled this heist. Agent Dick Womble kept in
touch with Ghantt's family thinking he might contact. - They have not heard from him. They're still leaning towards the theory that David was forced to do this. The picture we were
getting from the family does not seem to fit the profile of somebody that's gonna
take $17 million by himself and have a plan of action
and destination to go to. - [Narrator] While his
family is still thought it was impossible that David Ghantt could have orchestrated the
plan to steal $17 million, Agent John Wydra began looking
into Ghantt's background. (phone ringing) - This is a man who'd never
been in trouble with the law, was honorably discharged
from the military, worked overtime on a regular basis; from all outward appearances, would not be a willing
participant in this type of crime, yet we had video from several
different security cameras showing him spending over
an hour loading this van. So, you know, our first thoughts were, "Was he put up to it? Was somebody out there? What was his motivations for doing this?" - [Agent] Hi gentlemen, we have a timeframe here for two days. - [Narrator] Agents started to track David Ghantt's activities
leading up to the heist. They made a timeline of
every minute of every day, hoping that when the chalk dust cleared they would uncover the name
of an accomplice or some lead, (dramatic music) but they came up empty. (agent speaking faintly) The FBI started digging deeper
into David Ghantt's past, they talked with his old army buddies, no one offered any real leads. After hundreds of interviews, the FBI was left with
conflicting information about David Ghantt. - What we uncovered
about David Scott Ghantt is that he had two very
different personas, two very different lifestyles. On one hand, he would be
described as a hard worker, a conscientious worker, proud of his job; on the other hand, he would be described
as a disgruntled worker who felt that he was better than the job and that he was ready to move on. In his personal life; on one hand, we got a description of a
very church-going family man; on the other hand, we heard of a person who
wasn't happy with the fact that the purse strings were
controlled by his wife, that he was not allowed to
smoke within his own house, and that there were some things that were building inside of him, both personally and professionally, as far as the pressure goes, and that he was ready to bust. - [Narrator] Mostly Ghantt's
friends were shocked he pulled it off. It seemed no one, from his
old army buddies to his wife, gave him enough credit to have planned and executed such a big heist. - Great guy. - [Narrator] Still, the
FBI did have him on tape emptying the vault. Many of the people who knew David Ghantt characterized him as a loner. Some did mention that the
one person he seemed close to was a fellow worker named Kelly Campbell. Kelly worked with David at
Loomis for several years, but she'd quit about a
year before the heist. - Yeah, not much time to do anything else. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] While at Loomis, their fellow employees
reported the two of them spent a lot of time together. The FBI also learned they
met occasionally after work. (David and Kelly laughing) (door knocking) Agents paid a visit to Kelly Campbell. She told them she didn't
know anything about the heist and denied she was ever
close to David Ghantt. - And we just wanna ask
you a few questions. I'm sure you heard about the- - The interesting thing
with Kelly Campbell is that you had these external people saying that they were close, that they were good friends, that they would have lunch together, and that even after she
had left Loomis Fargo they stayed in contact, but that's not what
Kelly Campbell told us. She painted a different picture that they weren't all
that particularly close and that they really hadn't
maintained much of any contact since she had left. We had an obvious discrepancy here, and we had some doubts about the truthfulness of Kelly Campbell. - [Narrator] Despite their
doubts about Kelly Campbell, the FBI had no information
they could act on. (suspenseful music) The agents turned their attention
to Ghantt's phone records, hoping they might offer a concrete lead. They found that several
phone calls had been made the night of the heist from inside Loomis to
David Ghantt's cell phone. Since Ghantt was seen
inside taking the money, he was calling someone on the outside to whom he loaned his cell phone. - We got these things in the- - [Narrator] Ghantt's pager
records showed he received a series of numeric
pages from his cell phone on the night of the heist. Three digits were repeatedly
added into his pager, 143. Agents had no idea what it meant, but it seemed to confirm that
Ghantt did not act alone. The agents surmised that
whoever was on the other end of those phone calls
must've been involved. On a Saturday evening, exactly
one week after the robbery, a room full of FBI agents gathered, they were prepared to
receive numerous hot tips after against picture aired
on "America's Most Wanted." - We were counting on that show to spread beyond our
immediate viewing area in case the partners or Ghantt were in another part of the country. - [Announcer] Due to extended coverage of tonight's baseball game, "America's Most Wanted" will
not be seen on the East Coast. - [Agent] What? Oh, come on! - And what had happened was in the initial airing of the show, it got preempted by a
baseball playoff game. So we were all on standby, waiting for this massive
influx of telephone information that was gonna set us
in the right direction, and it just did not come. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] After one week, $14 million was unaccounted for and the FBI had few leads, they had no idea where
David Ghantt had gone. And as time went by, the less likely it seemed
they would ever find him or the money. As time went on, the Charlotte FBI continued
to keep the Loomis Fargo heist in the news. - [Radio Announcer] On
the radio this morning with Shafer and Eggman at Oldies Radio, Magic 96.1 here in Charlotte. More news coming out, they found that van, huh? How about that? - [Man] The got the van, now they're looking for the driver. And Loomis Fargo has posted
a reward, right, Liz? - [Liz] A couple of days ago, the stolen Loomis van that
was used in the robbery was found abandoned. David Ghantt is still on the run, he still eludes police. - [Narrator] Loomis Fargo
offered a $500,000 reward for any information. The leads began to pour
in to the FBI offices. Agents set up a special
database for storing and sorting the growing number of tips. - Anyone who suspected
anyone of having money or spending money that they
shouldn't have contacted us, and then we would have to go back out and check on all these calls. (vehicles droning) - [Narrator] Calls came into
the FBI offices day and night. (phone ringing) (suspenseful music) - [Automated Voice] This is
the FBI Charlotte Field Office. At the sound of the tone, leave a message. (tone beeps) - [Man] Hi, hello? Yeah, I know this guy, Eric Payne, and you might wanna check him out. He's been spending a lot of cash lately, he's been having these really big- - Yeah, that's right. I got it.
- The FBI got the first tip they could use.
- Just give me the address. What's the address? - [Narrator] An informant reported that shortly after the heist, a man named Eric Payne was
spending a lot of money. - [Agent] We'll send somebody right over. - At first, the FBI thought Payne might be an alias for Ghantt. They couldn't find a connection to Ghantt, but did learn he paid off a
credit card, bought a Harley, a Chevy Tahoe, and first class airline tickets, and took an expensive vacation. This was a tip that
seemed worth checking out. When it came in, Eric
Payne was on vacation. The FBI paid a visit to his workplace and interviewed his coworkers. Payne's coworkers confirmed
his lavish spending. (group chattering) The FBI learned he had been enjoying the high life lately and partying a lot. (crowd chattering) He even bought breast
enlargements for his two sisters. His wife not only got new breasts, she also got a new nose. Payne told everyone
he'd inherited the cash. (suspenseful music) The key information surrounding Eric Payne was that he worked at Reynolds and Reynolds graphics company, which was interestingly
just across the street from where the Loomis van was found. - Typically what you find with crimes are that people go to
where they're comfortable. So when you find the van being recovered and you find the name Eric Payne, you say to yourself, again, is this coincidental
that you've got someone who's spending money, whose
alibi is somewhat shaky, and yet we've also got this
van found in an open field behind the workplace? - [Narrator] The FBI followed
up on Eric's purchases and found he financed the Chevy Tahoe, but made his down payment in twenties. Not wanting to alert
him on their suspicions, the FBI decided to wait until
he returned from his vacation to speak with him. (indistinct radio) As the Charlotte FBI was gathering leads, some suspicious activity was also going on in nearby Gaston County, just a few miles from Charlotte. The Gaston County Police were working on a narcotics investigation when a reliable informant told them a man had just purchased a
$600,000 home and paid cash. (indistinct radio) Sergeant Rome of the Gaston County Police identified the man is Steve Chambers and began an extensive
background check on Steve and his wife, Michelle. Sergeant Rome learned Steve Chambers was making purchases all over town. In the last few weeks, he had paid cash for a
truck and a BMW roadster. - So when you start
putting them all together, a large number of cash purchases, large cash transactions, and everything, there's got to be a source of the funds. And based on the information
that I was able to obtain on the Chambers's finances and everything, two and two didn't add up. - [Agent] Tell me about it. - [Narrator] To the Gaston County Police, it seemed highly probable
this was illegal drug money rather than Loomis cash. Still, the police started
keeping a close eye on the Chambers. (dramatic music) In the weeks following the heist, information about the Chambers's
irregular spending habits started pouring in. The local investigation into
the Chambers's activities had begun to require more attention than most of Sergeant Rome's ongoing cases for the Gaston County Police. - It was real foolish on their part on the way they actually went about spreading the cash around
and flaunting the cash because within just a short period, eight different informants contacted me about their involvement as far as transactions that
they had tried to accomplish or actual had carried out. - [Narrator] The home Steve
and Michelle Chambers bought was in the small town of Cramerton, just a 15 minute drive
from Downtown Charlotte. (gentle music) With a little over 2,500 residents, this bedroom community
covers three square miles. The town is in the "Guinness
Book of World Records" for the shortest main street, which is only 75 feet long. (birds chirping) The town also is home to an
exclusive gated community called Cramer Mountain. (phone rings) As soon as the Chambers moved in, the police in Cramerton started to get some strange information about their newest residents. Chief David Young heads the
nine-men Cramerton police force. - The comments were
these people were living in a manufactured home six weeks ago, and now they have they have
all this newfound wealth. And apparently neither of them
had really had a steady job in two years. So they go from unemployed, living in a mobile home, to having more money than they can spend. (car engine revving) - [Narrator] The Chambers
moved into their exclusive home a few weeks after the Loomis Fargo heist. Steve's wife, Michelle, told anyone who would listen that her husband was a
retired pro football player who scored big while
gambling in Atlantic City, she also added that he was
selling some laundromats in Texas. (suspenseful music) None of this made much sense, but people were willing to listen and accept the Chambers's money. (women conversing faintly) Michelle paid for everything
with packets of cash, mostly twenties. (suspenseful music) - What is that? - [Narrator] One person to
whom the Chambers's stories didn't ring true was
Cramerton's mayor, Cathy Biles, who lived a few doors
down from their new home. - Everyone was under the impression that he was a retired Dallas
Cowboys football player, though none of the men in our neighborhood had ever heard of his name. And they just stayed to themselves, they were very different
than the other folks in the neighborhood. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Mayor Biles
wasn't the only one who thought the Chambers's
stories were a bit suspicious. Cramerton police chief David Young decided to call Mark Rozzi
of the Charlotte FBI. Rozzi told Chief Young the
FBI was beginning to suspect the Chambers in the Loomis heist. (lift whirring) Chief Young's tip is one of hundreds that were flooding the FBI. The agents had to sort
through hundreds of tips and determine which were
important and which were not. Steve Chambers clearly was beginning to generate a lot of heat.
- Turn around. To the left. Okay, no, no, no. That way. - [Narrator] The FBI focused much of their attention on him. (dramatic music) Far from being an ex
professional football player, Steve Chambers was a small time crook, a bookie fence and sometimes drug dealer who claimed to have mafia ties. He had been arrested
for passing bad checks. A report came back to the police that Chambers had caused a
disturbance at a local bar and had been thrown out. (dramatic music) Furious, he offered to buy
the club for $400,000 in cash. - I've thrown out of much better places. - [Narrator] Chambers's
conspicuous spending was certainly raising suspicions- - You ain't seen the last of me, buddy. - [Narrator] But the FBI
had no way of proving he was spending Loomis money. (suspenseful music) It had been several weeks since David Ghantt loaded
$17 million in unmarked bills into a company van and drove out of a Charlotte
Loomis Fargo warehouse and vanished. The FBI was searching for David
Ghantt and his accomplices by monitoring the hundreds of reports of suspicious spending
in and around Charlotte. Agents were also checking bank records to try and track any
suspicious cash transactions. This was a time consuming task according to FBI agent, John Wydra. - In terms of cash transaction reports, those get filed by businesses immediately, but it goes up to Washington then kind of its final back down to us, along with everybody else's reports that have no pertinence to this case. And we have to filter
through literally thousands of those documents to determine
which ones are pertinent. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Sorting through
the thousands of reports took weeks. It was painstaking work, especially when the agents weren't certain what they were looking for. But all the hard work paid off when the FBI discovered two
suspicious activities reports. - This seems to be a pattern. - [Narrator] These had been
filed earlier by bank tellers who reported certain
unusual cash transactions made by none other than Michelle Chambers. - Hi.
- [Narrator] On the Monday after the robbery, Michelle walked into a NationsBank branch, flashed a briefcase full of cash and asked how much she could deposit before she had to sign any paperwork. She made a point to assure the
teller it wasn't drug money. (dramatic music) By asking about paperwork, Michelle got the very
thing she didn't want. Her conversation with the teller generated a suspicious activity report. While this was helpful information and certainly cast further
suspicion on the Chambers, it didn't tie them to the Loomis money. The FBI began to take a much closer look at Steve and Michelle Chambers. - One of the things that
the surveillance led us to was both Steve and Michelle
Chambers going into banks, making fairly substantial cash deposits, acquiring safe deposit boxes. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Agent's started
round the clock surveillance. But in a small town, it was difficult to keep
surveillance a secret. Cramerton Police chief, David Young. - In a small town. any vehicle that's not normally
seen in the neighborhood becomes a suspicious vehicle. I think that was probably one of the biggest problems we had, understanding what was going on and trying to explain to residents who were calling about suspicious vehicles and trying to tell them what was going on without actually telling
them what was going on. - [Narrator] Chief Young
not only had to cover the FBI's activities
to Chambers's neighbors but also to the mayor. - I would come down my driveway to head in to Town Hall for the day, and I would see a car sitting
there with two men in it. And first of all, the
car didn't belong there. And secondly, for two men
to be sitting in a car in the morning wouldn't make sense. And I would say to
David, our police chief, "There's a car at the
base of my driveway," and he would say, yes, he knew about that and
they had it under control. And the cars would be there in the wee hours of the
morning and at night, in just very peculiar times. - [Narrator] The FBI did
not limit their surveillance to the land, they also took to the air, employing small planes to ensure they didn't lose the Chambers when they were on the move. (plane droning) The planes drew a lot of attention. Chief Young continued to get calls. - Not only are we dealing with reports of suspicious vehicles, now we gotta to come up with some reason for a plane flying low in the area. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] As all this
surveillance raised the suspicions of the residents of Cramerton, the FBI's main concern was that
Steve and Michelle Chambers might learn they were
the ones under suspicion. (agent speaking faintly) The FBI's fears were unfounded. It seemed Steve and Michelle
were the only people in town who hadn't noticed
someone was watching them. (group chattering) Two months after the heist,
as Christmas approached, the Chambers, oblivious to
all the police activity, continued their spending spree. (garage door whirring) - Now open your eyes. - [Narrator] The FBI learned
the couple bought a truck for Michelle's stepfather. (gentle music) Steve Chambers presented his wife with an early Christmas present, a three and a half carat diamond ring purchased for $43,000 in cash. While the Chambers's spending
was reaching bizarre levels, the FBI still couldn't prove they were spending the stolen Loomis cash. - [Steve] Merry Christmas. (crowd chattering)
(glasses clinking) - [Narrator] Nor could
agents connect Chambers to David Ghantt. (crowd laughing) (suspenseful music) As the holidays progressed, neither Ghantt's wife or
his family heard from him. As investigators struggled
to find his accomplices, David Ghantt's family
began to fear the worst. It had been over two months since their last contact with David. The FBI kept in touch with him but it seemed David Ghantt
truly had disappeared. After the holidays, the Chambers continued to spend and all the FBI could do was watch. They feared if they got too close, the Chambers would become suspicious. Steve Chambers made a
particularly difficult target, he kept a very close circle of friends. - He didn't talk outside
his friends or family. He'd never go out drinking with anybody, or out to dinner, or hang out with somebody
he hadn't known for years. So it was a matter of
literally getting yearbooks and trying to figure out where these two could have crossed paths in the past, or where they were going together now. - [Narrator] One of the
people the FBI found in Steve Chambers's yearbooks was David Ghantt's friend, Kelly Campbell. The FBI paid another visit to Kelly. (suspenseful music) Of all the people originally
interviewed after the heist, only Kelly Campbell refused
to take a polygraph test. - Very confidential,
nothing to worry about. - [Narrator[ They wanted
her to take the test, hoping that she could
help them make the link between Campbell and the Chambers. - Hello. - [Narrator] Or lead them to David Ghantt. - Kelly Campbell wanted no part of Special Agent Womble or myself. We sat down with her and
we tried to address her in such a way that a concerned friend would want to assist the FBI in trying to locate a friend
of theirs in David Ghantt. She had no interest in assisting us in locating David Scott Ghantt. In fact, she cut the interview very short. She was very nervous
during this interview, her pager went off, her
cell phone went off, and it just was not a typical interview. - [Narrator] Kelly Campbell's
second interview was so odd that it only served to further
raise the agents' suspicion. She continued to deny
she was close to David, but the agents were not convinced. - [Agent] How about Mr. Ghantt? Did he ever mention anything- - [Narrator] All the agents
had where their suspicions. - Which I have is out of
the thousands of calls and the thousands of leads,
and the thousands of names, you start having a couple
of names rise to the top. You've got, again, Kelly Campbell, who her version of a
relationship with David Ghantt does not match with anyone else's. You've got the Paynes who've
made some acquisitions that we can account for, and also the fact that he works where a crucial piece of
evidence has been found. And then you've got the
Chambers who have recently spent a vast amount of money that
we can't exactly account for. And the question becomes,
how are they all connected? How are they all connected
to David Scott Ghantt? (dramatic music) - [Narrator] The agents
had several suspects, but they had no evidence to
conclusively link the money to Loomis Fargo or the
suspects to one another. Their biggest problem was that after investigating the
heist for three months, the only man they knew
was involved in the heist still alluded them. With no idea where David Ghantt had gone, the FBI continued to watch the Chambers. (car engine revs) With a new home, new
cars, new tanning beds, and more home furnishings than
they knew what to do with, things continued to look up
for Steve and Michelle Chambers going into 1998. (helicopter rotor whirring) Had the Chambers themselves
thought to look up, they would have seen the FBI looking back, but they never did. Across from the Gastonia Courthouse, Steve and Michelle bought the
Furniture Discount Center. Neither Steve or Michelle
had held a steady job for the past two years, but they bought their way
into the furniture business. They rechristened their new
store M and S Furniture Gallery after themselves. (suspenseful music) Three months after the heist, the Chambers's out of control spending gave the FBI a huge break. - Hey!
- Hey, you! - [Narrator] They
observed Michelle Chambers and Kelly Campbell at the
furniture store together. Campbell was driving a brand new minivan. - Can you get a make on that license? - [Narrator] By tracing the
license plate number on the van, agents identified the registered owner as a known alias of Steve Chambers. The FBI finally connected Kelly
Campbell to Steve Chambers. - We got 'em.
- Their investigation was beginning to take shape. (dramatic music) As the FBI continued to watch, all over the Charlotte area, the Chambers's spending
continued at a dizzying pace, and so did the deposits. Michelle Chambers was becoming
well known at all the banks around suburban Charlotte and to the FBI. Agent John Wydra. - She was the money person. She was the one making
the deposits at the bank. She was the home decorator. She was trying to put this new life that they had built for
themselves together, and hold themselves out as
legitimate business people, as people that could
fit in with individuals who had that type of money legitimately. - [Narrator] In late January, 1998, she made an $8,000 deposit
that gave the FBI the evidence they had been seeking from the beginning. FBI agents were surveilling a bank when Michelle Chambers
walked in to make a deposit. (agents conversing faintly) The agents watched and she
handed the teller packets of cash wrapped in money bands, one of them was from Loomis. (dramatic music) This was the first evidence that tied the Chambers's wealth
directly to Loomis Fargo. Even better, the money ban still bore
the handwritten initials of a Loomis employee. - That wrapper was taking
immediately to Loomis Fargo, where we received samples of all initials, people who would initial bank bands at the Loomis Fargo facility, and there were only five
that were there at the time that the robbery had happened, and it turned out to be an employee who had not worked in the
vault since the robbery, and that was by pure coincidence, and that conclusively tied
that money to Loomis Fargo prior to the robbery. (engine revving) - [Narrator] Michelle's
previous banking gaffe had been fruitful for the authorities, but this one finally linked the Chambers with the stolen cash. (dramatic music) The FBI felt it was still
too early to make arrests. The robber, the accomplices, and the cash still had to be discovered. Agents had to decide what to do with his new found information. - Do we go ahead, make the arrest, take them down for what we had, the money laundering charges, et cetera, and hope that they would lead
us to the remaining money and David Scott Ghantt, or do we hold tight? And the decision was made, "Let's hold on just a little longer and hope that we get that
one piece of information that'll lead us to David Scott Ghantt." (engine putters) - [Narrator] The FBI
would wait on the arrests in the hopes the gang would tip them off as to Ghantt's whereabouts. Now that they could tie the
gang to the Loomis money, the FBI had enough
evidence to get warrants to search all the players' houses. But the FBI couldn't be certain they would find the evidence they needed. They feared if subpoenaed
before a grand jury, the suspects might lie or
invoke the fifth amendment and then go out to cover their tracks. A judge agreed with the FBI's concerns. On February 10th, he authorized a tap on
the Chambers's phone. (suspenseful music) The FBI got permission to place taps anywhere they thought Steve
and Michelle might be talking. They began to listen in on all the Chambers's
business transactions at their furniture store. (suspenseful music) - [Recording] And it's
all gonna be in cash. - [Narrator] With the wiretaps in place, the FBI settled in to begin monitoring the gang's phone conversation. - Just take it easy. We've got to lie low. - [Narrator] The FBI heard
anything and everything. - What does he want? - [Narrator] The gang
was speaking of business and their plans to spend money, but they weren't speaking about the heist. - Yeah, Mike McKinney-
- Chambers made phone calls about setting up a $2.5
million bank account in the Cayman Islands. - As a matter of fact I'm
thinking about hiring him as a bodyguard- - [Narrator] He discussed
hiring a man named Mike McKinney as bodyguard for $400 a
week plus an apartment. - Yeah, yeah, that's him. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Campbell talked
about putting on some weight and wanting liposuction. For the FBI, most of the talk was useless. - We were getting at the
critical stage in the wiretap, where you can only do that for so long showing you're trying to gather
a certain amount of evidence and then you have to break it off. And we were just about at that point to make the decision to, "Let's round up who we know
and what we know about them and hope that they'll lead
us to David Scott Ghantt." It's at that point that we get the break where Kelly Campbell tells Steve Chambers, "Guess who I just heard from?" (woman speaking faintly) - [Narrator] The FBI heard Kelly Campbell tell Steve Chambers that
she had received a page from David Ghantt. - [Radio] Have you heard
from our little gringo? - [Narrator] This was the
first evidence the FBI had Ghantt was still alive and was working with
Campbell and the Chambers. - [Steve] What'd you tell him? - [Narrator] the FBI wanted
to capture his voice on tape. (suspenseful music) Kelly and David set up a system where David would send a
coded numeric page to Kelly telling her where and
when he would call her. (pager beeping) Campbell told Chambers when the two were supposed to speak next. (suspenseful music) (phone ringing) At the time when David Ghantt arranged to speak with Kelly Campbell, the FBI was in place, ready and waiting, (suspenseful music) (phone ringing) but Kelly wasn't. - [Mark] Surveillance
leads us to a payphone where Kelly is supposed to
be receiving an incoming call from David Ghantt. We're all standing by, we've gotten the legal authority to intercept that phone call, and Kelly Campbell simply does not show. (phone ringing) - [Narrator] After months
of watching and waiting. it seemed the FBI's most pressing question would go unanswered. After months of monitoring Kelly Campbell and Steve Chambers, the FBI was waiting to
hear David Ghantt's voice and confirm that he was still alive. As agents waited to listen in
on a prearranged phone call between Ghantt and Campbell, a serious complication arose. - [Mark] It was When it rang and she was nowhere to be found, but we went ahead and picked up the phone just to see who was on the other end. - Okay. - [Mark] And we were able
to capture that voice on the other end, and we knew we had David Scott Ghantt at the other end of that phone. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The FBI
finally had a voice on tape and confirmed it was David Ghantt's, they now knew he was alive
but didn't know where he was. He hung up before the
call could be traced. Hearing his voice gave the
agents enough information to extend their phone taps. (dramatic music) They would simply have to wait and see if the gang would lead
them to David Ghantt. The next time David Ghantt
paged Kelly Campbell, she immediately called Steve Chambers. - I've heard from them again. - [Narrator] The FBI was
listening to their conversation. Kelly told Steve she was afraid Ghantt would ask for more money. The agents were surprised to learn that Ghantt had
apparently run out of cash and desperately needed
Kelly to send him some. The agents listening in couldn't imagine how a
man who stole $17 million could have run out of cash, unless the money was still
in the Charlotte area. Steve Chambers told Kelly
they couldn't wait any longer, it was time to get rid of
Ghantt once and for all. He told her to stop by the furniture store so they could discuss how to proceed. (suspenseful music) When Kelly arrived at the store, the FBI had an agent inside. Steve told Kelly that
Ghantt's requests for money had to stop. - The guy is causing a problem now- - [Narrator] He told her it
was time to put their plan to kill Ghantt into action. - [Steve] We can tell
him we're gonna send him some more money- - [Narrator] Ghantt was the only one who could tie them to the money; if he was gone, they
would be free and clear. - I'm done. If he's causing a problem now- - [Narrator] Chambers said Mike McKinney had been in place for months, ready to take care of Ghantt. But they had one problem. Although Kelly was talking
to David on the phone, no one knew where he was. Chambers pressured Kelly
when Ghantt called again to find out where he was staying. (suspenseful music ) - Look, I gotta have some more money. - [Narrator] When David called Kelly, she knew what she had to do. David told Kelly he loved her and he couldn't wait for her to join him. He told her he was in Cozumel, Mexico. - Cozumel, okay. - [Narrator] The FBI
finally had the information they sought. David Ghantt had been
hiding south of the border since the heist. Now, like the FBI, Kelly
also knew where he was. She told him someone
would deliver more money and he should stay where
he was and wait for it. - Well, I'm not so sure. - [Narrator] With that, she appeared to seal David Ghantt's fate. (suspenseful music) From the time the FBI
overheard Steve Chambers talking about hiring Mike McKinney, the FBI had been keeping
a close eye on him. They got a break when they
heard Chambers ask McKinney to meet him in a hotel
room outside Charlotte. - It's only a couple of bucks, it won't be a problem. - [Narrator] When the two
men met, the FBI was waiting. They heard Chambers arrange from McKinney to take a few guys with him down to Mexico to finish off David Ghantt. The FBI had to move fast, in a few days someone would
be coming to kill Ghantt. - He's still are our prime suspect, he's the one who removed the money, and we want him back. Now, we're armed with the information that there is a plot to take his life; and with that information, it's
our job, first and foremost, to protect him and intercept those folks before they can have him killed. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] On Sunday
morning, March 1st, 1998, five months after the Loomis Fargo heist, three agents checked into a Mexican hotel, they had come to get David Ghantt. Five months after the Loomis Fargo heist, the FBI finally identified the key players and they had located David Ghantt. (dramatic music) They were now in a deadly race against Ghantt's accomplices to find him before they did. Just days after Steve Chambers
ordered Ghantt's murder, three men approached him, one asked to see his identification. - Please tell me you're an FBI agent. - [Narrator] David
Ghantt knew it was over. - And he says to me, "Please tell me you're an FBI agent," and I said, "I am," and the next thing he said to me was, "We really need to talk," and I said, "Yes, we do," and then he told me, "I'm
really glad to see you," and I told him that I
was glad to see him also. - [Narrator] And that was it. He was quietly arrested. (dramatic music) 24 hours after the arrest, on the day David Ghantt's
accomplished accomplices planned to have him killed, he was on a flight back to
Charlotte, North Carolina. Now that the Ghantt was in custody, the FBI was able to piece together how the gang pulled off the heist. (thrilling music) David Ghantt worked at Loomis
Fargo for several years, it was here where he
first met Kelly Campbell, the two hit it off. Ghantt was from the same
working class stock as Campbell. But working around all that money was not a job David Ghantt enjoyed. - Actually money smells, it stinks, it's got the ink smell. And when you spend 12,
14 hours a day with it, and you're in every bank in Charlotte, it's a boring job. - [Narrator] David's wife, Tammy, kept him on a strict budget. Each week they barely had
enough money for food, let alone life's little luxuries. (suspenseful music) Meanwhile, Kelly and David
medication only outside work. In one of these meetings, Kelly had a question for David, she asked him what he would
think if they robbed Loomis. She told him he would
be the perfect person to pull off the heist; and if he did, he could finally live
the way he always wanted. She told him she had a friend
who could help hide the money and help Ghantt get away, the three of them could
split the money three ways. As an ex-employee, Kelly guessed they could take
about $4 million a piece. She hinted, with all that money, she and David could live
together any way they wanted. - I was kind of shocked. I thought she was just playing with me. And then I started thinking
about it kind of serious. - [Narrator] And then
one day in September, Ghantt became very serious when he realized it would take
30 years of monthly payments to zero out his credit card. (keypad beeping) (phone ringing) - Hello? - [Narrator] Ghantt called Kelly
Campbell with his decision. - Yeah, I've been thinking about it. Yeah, I'll do it. - Me and my wife had run up some bills, and we were kind of tight financially, and that idea just appealed to me. - [Narrator] Over the next few weeks, Ghantt finally began
paying close attention to how Loomis operated. He started to pick apart
their security system and target the weakest links, mainly their lack of manpower. - Their physical security
was actually real good, it was just they didn't have enough people to cover all the spots, and that left me with
all the keys by myself, which, you know, $17 million, who wouldn't go, really? - [Narrator] It seemed to Ghantt that if he chose a weekend when he was closing the vault himself, he could probably walk away
with nearly $17 million. (suspenseful music) Taking the money would be easy, getting away would be difficult. He began to study, and he
discussed everything with Kelly. He read up on the FBI and
learned that most investigations center around the area of the crime and then spread outward. - They come at every crime
pretty much the same way. And especially robberies, they'd look at the airports,
and then train stations, and the bus stations, and they make a little
bubble around the crime. And if they don't really
find you right there, they're there at zero, so that buys you some time. So my plan was for us to
just get out of that bubble. (suspenseful music) - Ghantt realized that after the heist he would have to get as far
away from Charlotte as he could, that meant he would need a fake passport and a way out of the country.
- Let's do it. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] While Ghantt
GAD was doing his homework, Steve Chambers became the real
mastermind behind the plan. Ghantt never met or spoke to Chambers, he didn't even know his name, that way they couldn't
implicate each other should they get caught. Chambers relayed information
to get through Kelly Campbell. He made all the arrangements
for after the robbery, including assembling the gang. He recruited his cousin, Scott Grant, and high school pal, Eric Payne, for $100,000 a piece
to help hide the money. Chambers also took care of getting Ghantt out of the country, he paid a man $50,000
for his birth certificate to create a false ID for Ghantt. (suspenseful music) With the simple plan in place, David Ghantt learned on
Saturday, October 4th, 1997, he was scheduled to close
Loomis facility by himself, this was the day. Early that morning David Ghantt kissed his
sleeping wife goodbye, took a last look at his mobile home, and left for work knowing that he wouldn't
be returning tonight or any time soon. - Severing ties with your
family and your wife, that's probably the hardest thing to do. But I don't know how to explain it, you realize that, "Well, maybe in four or five
years, I can contact them," but you know you're only
lying to yourself about that, you know you can't come back. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] David Ghantt
went about his business at Loomis as he had every
other day he had worked there. Later that afternoon, the gang assembled to
wait for David Ghantt. Campbell used David Ghantt's cell phone to call him at Loomis and
set up a meeting time. The plan required Ghantt
to be alone at Loomis after the last truck came in. He was going to load the
cash into a company van and then drive out of
Loomis around 5:00 PM. When Ghantt responded to Kelly's page, he told her two obstacles
stood in their way. One, he couldn't be ready with the cash until 6:30 or 7:00 that evening, after the last truck returned. Two, Ghantt found out
he would be breaking in a new trainee today. The gang would have to
spend a few anxious hours waiting for David to try and
get the warehouse to himself. (suspenseful music) After the last truck rolled in nearly 30 minutes later than expected, Ghantt and the new trainee
with the only two people in the Loomis warehouse. Ghantt played on the
trainee's inexperience. - So you go on out, I'll lock the door. - I just went through the motions
of closing down the vault. He thought I locked the
vault, and he was tired. And then when I told him to go, he got right in his car and left. - [Trainee] All right,
David, I'm out of here, man. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] After the trainee drove off, David Ghantt had to face
his own moment of truth. - I'm not sure if I've
got the guts to do it, because I know as soon as I
put first dollar in that van, I can't go back. If I steal $1, I've gotta steal 'em all. (suspenseful music) (light switch clicks) - [Narrator] David Ghantt
decided to steal them all. (thrilling music) He took a moment to pause
and gaze at his future lying before him in
deceptively neat green stacks, then he got to work. Steve Chambers's friend, Eric Payne, drove a rented to the parking lot at Reynolds and Reynolds, the printing company where he worked. The plant was closed for the night and the lot wasn't
visible from the street. He would wait for again and the others to arrive with the cash. (suspenseful music) Steve Chambers, Scott
Grant and Kelley Campbell parked across the street from the one-story brick Loomis warehouse, where they would wait
until Ghantt appeared in a cash heavy Loomis van. (car rumbling) Back inside, Ghantt lifted pallets
of shrink wrapped cash packeted in Loomis rappers
to a white company van 15 feet away, his every move was caught on tape. (machine whirring) (suspenseful music) Outside Loomis, across the street, Chambers was getting nervous because Ghantt was already running late. Kelly kept calling
Ghantt every few minutes and paging him with a 143 code, it meant, "I love you," each number representing the
number of letters in each word. It was not a sophisticated
code as the FBI had suspected. (pager beeping) Inside, David was beginning
to feel the pressure, (phone rings) and Kelly's repeated pages only serve to make it him nervous. - I gotta go. - We're better lay off for a while. - [Narrator] At about 7:45, nearly an hour later
than originally planned, Ghantt couldn't fit another brick of money inside the vehicle. He had packed Ford's biggest van with literally a ton of cash. (suspenseful music) Ghantt removed the from
two video recorders locked in a cabinet in the security room, he didn't know about the third recorder. (suspenseful music continues) After months of planning and several nervous
hours emptying the vault, David Ghantt was ready to
make his drive to freedom, but he couldn't get out of the gate. (chain rattling) Ghantt didn't know who
this good Samaritan was, he was afraid he had been caught until he looked across the street, saw Campbell's truck and realized this must be an accomplice. David had thought only he
Kelly and her unnamed friend were in on the plan. This was an unpleasant surprise, but he would have to
worry about that later. (gate squeaks) (engines rumbling) After many frustrating delays, David Ghantt was finally, if momentarily, a rich man. (tires screech) - Driving a ton of money
in that particular van, it was a great feeling. I mean, the ride wasn't very good, but it was a great feeling. It's probably one of the best drives I've ever taken in my life. I'm driving along thinking, "I've done it! I'm gonna be famous. These people are gonna
freak out tomorrow." - [Narrator] But in just a few minutes, his is euphoria ended. (engine revving) - [David] I'm sitting at
a light and I look across and I see this Charlotte-Meck Police. "Oh God, they already know." So I decided to smoke me a
cigarette to calm myself down. I'm shaking too bad to light a cigarette. I'm sitting there thinking, " Dave, you gotta be calm." - [Narrator] After months of planning, David Ghantt's simple plan seemed as if it would come to simple end. Loomis Fargo vault supervisor, David Ghantt had just driven
out of his company's warehouse in a van stuffed with millions of dollars. It seemed just as he was
about to begin his life as a millionaire, fortune was not on his side. Then his luck changed
and he went on his way. The police didn't follow, it seemed they hadn't heard of the heist, Ghantt was in the clear. He then pulled into the Reynolds
and Reynolds parking lot with the gang following right behind. (tires screeching) As he got out of the van, yet another stranger approached. - Give me the keys. I'm with you, all right, come on, give me the keys. - [Narrator] Eric Payne
assured him it was okay, he was with the gang. (keys rattling) Ghantt handed off the
key to the Loomis van. (dramatic music) Ghantt and Campbell drove off, (car engine rumbling) but what they left behind
was a major problem. The key to the van was
on an eight inch ring with about 200 others.
- What key is it? - [Narrator] In all the excitement, someone lost track of exactly which key opened the Loomis van. - [Man] Did he hand you the key or not? - I guess he did. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Settling in for
the ride to Columbia Airport in South Carolina, and unaware of the chaos they left behind, David and Kelly were excited, they actually pulled it off. Of the millions David had
taken from Loomis Fargo, he only took $30,000
to start his new life. But for all his meticulous planning, he didn't give any thought
to how he would carry it aboard the plane. Kelly had a quick solution. They pulled into a convenience store and she bought a pair of pantyhose, which he cut up and stuffed with money, it was quick thinking on her part. (dramatic music) But thinking he wasn't quite
as quick back at the van. - You! Give me that! Give me that! - [Narrator] After unsuccessful efforts to find the right key, the trio moved on to
more desperate methods of trying to open the van. Apparently it didn't occur to them that armored vans have bulletproof glass. While Chambers and company
struggled to get the money, David Ghantt was wearing his. (dramatic music continues) Back at the van, the gang held the key to
their future in their hands, but they still didn't know which one. Then they caught a break.
- Hey, guys! Guys, I got it. Come on, come on. The door is open. Come on! (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Chambers in
his accomplices froze in awe at the site of so much money, though they didn't yet
know how much they had. - Come on, fellows, get the barrels. Come on! - [Narrator] Chambers
brought three blue barrels to carry the cash. (dramatic music) But with the barrels filled to the brim, the trio had to leave behind the packets of one and $5 bills. (tires screeching) They headed off to ditch
the van and hide the money. At the Columbia Airport, Kelly and David encountered
their own problem. - [Kelly] I don't know what to do. - [Narrator] Because his plan didn't include making plane reservations, Ghantt and Campbell learned only upon arriving at Columbia Airport that there were no flights to Mexico. - Well, I don't know what to do. Okay. - It's all right, it's Kelly. - [Narrator] Kelly phoned Steve Chambers, who told her to send Ghantt to Atlanta, about 200 miles away. - Okay, we'll take the bus. - [Narrator] As the bus pulled out of the Columbia bus station, David began his life as a fugitive, with the hope that Kelly
would soon join him in Mexico. But David's trip to Mexico
wouldn't be without incident. On a layover in New Orleans, a woman approached him
as if she recognized. - I think I know you. - I don't think so. - You're that German tennis
player, Boris Becker. - I'm Mike from Atlanta,
I'm in computer sales. - [David] I kind of have
a mild panic attack. I'm not sure if the news has come out yet, 'cause I'm not sure what time it is. And I said, "No, ma'am,
I'm not Boris Becker." (car honking) - [Narrator] From the moment Ghantt arrived in Cancun, Mexico,
he started living it up, dining in all the best restaurants, alone. (crowd chattering) Ghantt, a stranger in
the tropical paradise, found his reception chilly. Throughout the carefree
months of October, 1997, Ghantt's wallet was getting thinner. He continued to spend, but because he couldn't carry his share of the loot with him to Mexico, he had to rely on his accomplices to send him the cash he needed. By the end of October, only
a few weeks after the heist, Ghantt's resources were already drying up. - I called Campbell, I said, "Hey, I'm running low on money, I need you to send me some." And I asked for like $50,000, so that's not too bad of her request. I mean, they've got plenty of money, why shouldn't they send me some? (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] To deliver Ghantt's money, Steve Chambers sent Mike McKinney who traveled under the name Bruno. McKinney's orders were gift get the cash and keep an eye on him until the gang could find the perfect time to kill him.
- Looking for help from Charlotte? - Yeah, who are you? - I'm Bruno.
- Bruno finally shows up one morning, I'd been out partying, and I open the door and he asks me, "You're looking for some
help from Charlotte?" and I go, "Yeah?" and invite him in. - [Narrator] Bruno gave Ghantt
a small packet of money. When Ghana protested, he told him that's all they gave him. - You get 10,000 at a time. - And it's like $8,000,
it's hardly anything. And I called Campbell up, "Where's my money?" I'm suspicious of something now 'cause I I've asked for
one thing and got another. - Adios, amido. - [Narrator] For the first time, it occurred to David Ghantt that he might never see
the millions of dollars he thought would be his. (suspenseful music) But David Ghantt soon
encountered a larger problem. He was eating dinner at
a restaurant in Cancun when a stranger approached. (crowd chattering) - And he says, "You know who look like?" I'm thinking Boris Becker. He goes, "You look like that guy that stole $20 million in North Carolina," I'm like, "Really?" I give them a little spiel about how I been living
in Mexico for years, and it couldn't be me, and inside I'm panicking. - [Narrator] Ghantt was shaken. If people were recognizing him, the story of the heist
must not be dying down. He knew he would have
to make some changes. (crowd chattering) Ghantt laid low, continuing
to keep to himself. He spent his time reading comics and listening to Eagle's CDs. (suspenseful music) While he was keeping his low profile, Ghantt got some unexpected help. - Hey, my name's Robert. - [Narrator] A stranger
knocked on his door. The man identified himself as Robert and told Ghantt he was
a friend of Bruno's. - [Robert] What's the matter? - When Ghantt let him in-
- What do you mean? - [Narrator] He had a question for David. - What's wrong, man? - He thinks I'm some kind of drug dealer, and, "No, man, I ain't got
nothing to do with that stuff." And he says, "Well, these
people wanna kill you. What's the deal with that?" And instantly I knew that I
was never gonna to see my money and that these people
were trying to kill me. And now I'd have to
change the way I lived. - [Narrator] Robert told Ghantt Bruno was working for
the people in Charlotte, and they were putting together
a plan to have him killed. They were just waiting for
the perfect opportunity, he came to warn him. - I got $2,000 here. - [Narrator] Ghantt gave
Robert $2,000 to keep quiet, and vowed to himself he wouldn't give them the perfect opportunity. If he ever met Bruno again, it would not be the two of them alone. (suspenseful music) David's grand plan hadn't
worked out as he had expected. He was now wanted by the
FBI for stealing money that he would likely never see and targeted for death
by his accomplishments. He started staying inside most of the day and coming out only at night. (waves crashing) (suspenseful music) Afraid for his safety
since that life saving tip from the mysterious Robert, Ghantt started changing
hotels and using aliases. - A room that's overlooking
the pool and courtyard area. - [Narrator] It was at this time the gang lost touch with him. - Stealing all the
money, being on the lam, having somebody trying to kill you, it makes you find out what
kind of person you are. Do you really have guts? Can you really think on your feet? - Look, I gotta have some more. - [Narrator] While thinking on his feet, Ghantt made one mistake, he didn't believe Kelly
was part of the plot to have him killed. And when he called her
again to ask for money, he told her where he was staying. - I'm in Cozumel. - [Narrator] The gang and the FBI both learned where Ghantt was. Shortly after that, he ran into the FBI. He walked out of his hotel one morning and was picked up by Agent Rozzi. Now that the FBI had Ghantt custody, they needed the rest of the gang. But Agent Rozzi had a question. - I just wasn't sure
what it was about Kelly that was this force that would
allow him to commit a crime of this magnitude. So the question for David Ghantt was, "What is it about Kelly? Obviously there's something there." And David's answer to me was, "If you can believe this,
I only kissed her once." And then he turned and
looked at me and said, "It turns out to be a pretty
expensive kiss, doesn't it? And obviously it was an expensive kiss. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] When the
plane landed in Charlotte, the FBI knew it had to move quickly to arrest the rest of the gang before they learned Ghantt was captured. (dramatic music) On Monday, March 2nd, 1998, five months after the Loomis Fargo heist, a taskforce of FBI agents and local police quietly approached the Chambers home in the early morning hours. When Steve Chambers came to the door, he was told that someone had broken into his furniture store. - What happened?
- Get on the ground. Get on the ground, get on the ground. - [Agents] Upstairs. Up here. FBI! FBI- - [Narrator] His days
as a rich man were over. Upstairs, agents arrested
Michelle Chambers. - On your back. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] On the night of the robbery, Steve Chambers had sworn
his cohorts to secrecy should they ever get caught. On the day of the arrest, Steve Chambers named them all to the FBI. As the Chambers were being
arrested in their mansion, Kelly Campbell was also
visited by the FBI. (dramatic music) - [Officer] We got her. - [Narrator] The agents searched her home, they confiscated anything that
might have looked suspicious. They took credit cards,
appliances, jewelry, and boxes of cash. (door knocks) - Who is it? - [Officer] House keeping. Down! Get down on the ground. Down! - [Narrator] Gang member, Mike McKinney, was arrested in his Gastonia
North Carolina hotel room. - Stand him up. All right, get him up, get him up. All right, you have the
right to remain silent. Anything-
- For his part, helping to unload the money, Eric Payne met the same fate. Agents seized everything
stolen money could buy and anything that might've
been used in a crime. All the items that triggered
his coworkers' suspicions about his wild spending were confiscated, including his Chevy Tahoe. The FBI recovered well
over a million dollars in cash from the gang's private homes. Of course the most cash, the most jewelry, the most everything, came from the Chambers palace, $720,000 in cash and 460 different items, all of it carried out of
the house by federal agents. (dramatic music) The neighbors, including
Cramerton Mayor, Cathy Biles, now understood the suspicious looking cars and strangers around the
neighborhood over the past months. - I was shocked when I found out. It was one of those very surreal moments where you start piecing
everything together that had happened since
the Loomis Fargo story had first come out. And then you start thinking about all the times
you've seen the Chambers, and what they were like, and how the money had revealed
itself in their lives. - [Narrator] As neighbors looked on, they could see the FBI using
money counting machines for two full days inside the house. (agents chattering) Agents found cash in desk drawers, a shoe box in Michelle's closet, a blue barrel from the night
of the robbery in the basement. (suspenseful music) The Chambers had once borrowed
a shovel from a neighbor, leading the FBI to believe
that maybe there was money buried in the backyard. Ironically, none of the six accused had enough money to
hire their own attorney. They were appointed counsel by the court and held without bond until their hearing. In the courthouse, as Kelly Campbell and David Ghantt were waiting for their hearing, they had a moment to talk. Thinking back on all that had happened, Kelly began to regret
betraying her friend, she apologized to David, but it was too late. - David Ghantt at that time
believed he was in love. Kelly Campbell at that
time wanted the money, and that was pretty consistent
throughout the investigation. David Ghantt believed he
was gonna live with her for the rest of his days
on a beach somewhere with his third of the money and her third of the money. Kelly Campbell, I don't
believe ever had any intentions of leaving this country. - [Narrator] A total of nearly
$10 million was recovered from 24 different safe deposit boxes that Chambers paid his friends
and relatives to set up on his behalf. (suspenseful music) In all, there were 21
defendants, 20 pleaded guilty; only one pled not guilty, Chambers's attorney, Jeffrey Guller, who was convicted by a
jury for money laundering. United States attorney for the Western District
of North Carolina, Mark Calloway, gives
credit where it is due. - In the end, we indicted 21 people. 20 of those people pled guilty, the one that went to trial was convicted. And I think that stands to show that the FBI did a terrific
job in investigating the case. - [Narrator] Eric Payne,
who helped hide the money was sentenced to six and a half years. For ditching the van, Scott Grant was sentenced to
four years and seven months. Michelle Chambers received
seven years eight months; her husband, Steve, received
11 years three months. For the planned hit on David Ghantt, Mike McKinney received 11 years six months for charges including
conspiracy to commit murder. Because she cooperated with authorities, Kelly Campbell received
five years and 10 months, the lightest sentence of all
the principal defendants. She is currently serving time in the Federal Prison Camp
in Alderson, West Virginia. - Well, I thought, with all the money, that life would just be so much simpler, that all my problems would go away and I wouldn't have to
worry about anything, but in reality it just more
or less caused more problems because of the way that it was obtained. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] David received
seven years six months in prison. He's now serving his time in the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina. - To my family, I caused
them a lot of grief. There are still kind of touchy moments with me and my family. And it was too much for my wife, she divorced me about
about a month ago now. - [Narrator] This heist cost
David Ghantt everything, yet he remains undaunted. - Well, now that I've been sentenced, would I do it again? Yeah. An opportunity like that comes
around once in a lifetime. And now that I'm already
in prison, and been judged, and everything, I can be more honest and say sure. - [Narrator] The gang members were ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution. This is money they will likely be paying for the rest of their lives. (suspenseful music) For the FBI, it was a relief to know they
had captured the Loomis gang. - This was not an easy
case to wrap up in a nice, neat bundle at all. And there was a pressure that
we put on ourselves a lot. We wanted it all. We wanted David Ghantt
back, safe and sound, we wanted all the people responsible, all the people that participated, and we wanted the money. - [Narrator] In the
end, the FBI got it all. To Agent John Wydra, it seemed the gang hadn't fully
thought their crime through. - I don't think they were thinking that they could get away with it. They were looking at the end result. They were looking at being
millionaires on a beach, the way everybody daydreams, and they weren't thinking
of the consequences at all. - [Narrator] The gang lost everything. Every item they bought
with the Loomis cash was confiscated by the FBI. In February of 1999, over 5,000 people turned
out for an auction of over 1000 items bought
with money from the heist. Michelle's convertible
BMW and a velvet Elvis were among the souvenirs that
went to the highest bidders. (dramatic music) The proceeds of about $360,000
went to Lloyd's of London, Loomis Fargo's insurance company. (dramatic music)
