If you drove down Suttle Avenue in Bryant Park just outside Uptown Charlotte today, you would see a series of luxury apartments, some office buildings, and a DISH Network Corporation warehouse. The DISH Network warehouse at 2050 Suttle Avenue looks unassuming, but it is the site of a 1997 heist where $17 million was stolen from Loomis Fargo & Co., an armored transportation, cash services, and automated teller machine maintenance company.
David Ghantt, a vault supervisor at Loomis Fargo & Company, his former coworker Kelly Campbell, and a couple named Steve and Michelle Chambers devised a plan to rob the Loomis Fargo & Company vault. The plan was simple: Ghantt would empty the vault and deliver the money to Campbell and the Chambers. Ghant would then leave the money with the Chambers and Campbell and flee to Mexico, where he was supposed to be joined by Campbell. The Chambers would then send Ghantt money to live while he was in Mexico.
On October 4, 1997, Ghantt loaded roughly $17 million in an unmarked company Ford Econoline van. Along with the money, he stole both vault keys and set the vault’s timer so it couldn’t be opened for two or three days. He also stole the VCR tapes that recorded the crime after the money was loaded into the van and driven to the empty parking lot of Reynolds and Reynolds, a printing business.
Ghantt exited the stolen van and left with Campbell. The plan was to drop Ghantt off at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina. The airport was closed that night, so Ghantt took a bus from Columbia to Atlanta to fly out of Hartsfield International Airport.
David Ghantt had made it to Louisiana from Atlanta. While in the food court at the airport in New Orleans, Ghantt feared he had been made. A woman confused him with Boris Becker, the German tennis player.
Ghantt reached Mexico with $25,000 and headed for a hotel. The plan seemed to have worked. Now, Campbell and the Chambers would have to hold up their end of the deal. The Chambers, with Campbell and other accomplices, began counting the money to determine the amount of their ill-gotten gains.
But this criminal outfit made a series of mistakes that would ultimately be their undoing. On October 6, Michelle Chambers entered a NationsBank in Mount Holly, where she asked the teller how much cash she could deposit without the teller having to file any paperwork. That amount would be $10,000, so Michelle Chambers deposited $9,500. The teller promptly filed the suspicious activity reports, although the FBI wouldn’t see those papers for another three months.
Before the heist, the Chambers lived in a mobile home. With their new-found wealth, they purchased a $635,000 home, for which they paid $10,000 upfront, $400,000 in cash, and $225,000 in financed payments. A large purchase like that did not go unnoticed. Ghantt also did not realize a third camera in the vault recorded the entire event.
On October 5, FBI agents Dick Womble, Mark Rozzi, and Rick Schwein sat in the manager’s office at NationsBank and watched the footage of Ghantt loading up millions of dollars. At this point, the amount of money stolen was uncertain because the serial numbers were unknown. The heist made it onto America’s Most Wanted. The FBI hoped that the show would help them gain information.
Meanwhile, Ghantt was living large in Cancun, Mexico, enjoying the white sand beaches, eating lobster, shopping, and only paying in cash. The Chambers continued living the high life, purchasing and ruining $20,000 worth of cigars by not putting water in the humidor. Michelle Chambers also purchased a brand new 1998 BMW convertible.
From October 6 through February 20, the couple made 47 deposits totaling $271,500 at a Belmont bank, and Michelle Chambers tried to get an official bank check with $200,000 in cash. On October 24, the Chambers took a trip to New York with Eric and Amy Payne. Eric Payne was a last-minute recruit for the heist who was paid $100,000 for his help. While in New York, the couples spent thousands of dollars.
Back in Mexico, Ghantt hadn’t received any more money, and Campbell hadn’t come to join him. Steve Chambers was getting paranoid, believing Ghantt would turn them in to the FBI if they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. Steve Chambers plotted to have Ghantt killed via hitman. The hired gun was never able to get close enough to Ghantt in Mexico to kill him. The FBI was closing in. They had wiretaps on the Chambers and became aware of their new spending habits. FBI agents found Ghantt in Mexico when they uncovered the assassination plot.
On March 2, 1998, the Chamberses and Campbell were arrested, and Ghantt was arrested in Playa del Carmen in Mexico. More than 20 people were arrested and convicted in relation to the heist, with crimes ranging from money laundering to bank larceny. Some people received probation while others received over ten years of jail time. When it was all said and done, fourteen defendants were required to pay restitution of $19 million.
The 2016 film Masterminds, starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, and Kristen Wiig was loosely based on these events. It has been over 25 years since the heist, and Suttle Avenue is almost unrecognizable. A new business occupies the scene of the crime, and apartments and townhomes have sprouted up along the road.
