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978-0-89587-321-7
0-89587-321-4
$14.95 paperback
6" x 9"
256 pages
black-and-white photographs
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In
1997, an amateurish group of thieves pulled off the second-largest cash
heist in America’s history. Their antics conjure up comparisons to
novels by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen, but even those authors could
not invent such wacky behavior.
Although
the actual perpetrator, Loomis Fargo truck driver David Ghantt, was
captured on tape as he methodically wheeled money from the vault into a
van for a whole hour, it took several days to determine that he had
stolen $17 million. The company had to chisel its way inside the vault,
as Ghantt had set its security timer so it couldn’t be opened for
days.
Unhappy
with his life and marriage, Ghantt had been coaxed into a life of crime
by Kelly Campbell, a former Loomis Fargo co-worker. The plan was for
Ghantt to escape to Mexico and await Campbell, who would join him there
with the rest of his share of the stolen money. After depositing the
loot with other accomplices, Campbell and Ghantt drove to Columbia,
South Carolina, so Ghantt could catch a plane to Mexico. Apparently
unaware of the need to plan an escape completely, the couple arrived at
the airport only to learn that it was closed for the night. A flustered
Ghantt then took a four-hour cab ride to the Atlanta airport, which
eventually led him to Mexico.
Meanwhile,
back at home, the bungling continued. The thieves were forced to leave
$3.3 million behind because they didn’t bring enough 55-gallon storage
drums. Two days later, gang member Michele Chambers walked into a bank
with a suitcase full of money and asked how much she could deposit
without the bank’s having to file a report. She deposited $9,500, but
a report of suspicious activity was filed anyway. It would take several
months for that report to wind its way through the bureaucracy.
Back
at their mobile home, Michele and her husband, Steve, the mastermind of
this strange gang, decided to purchase a $635,000 home less than 30
miles from their current abode. To furnish their new home, the
Chamberses went on a spending spree that included a six-foot-tall wooden
Indian, a large oil painting of dogs in military clothes, two bronze
statues of nude men, a white porcelain statue of three nude women, a
sculpture of a headless man, a ceramic white elephant, gold-framed oil
paintings of zebras, naked-women bookends, and a statue of a fat chef.
The couple replaced the raw-silk stair runner on the home’s impressive
staircase with a snappier tiger-skin look. They also bought several
large-screen televisions, a $10,000 pool table, a grand piano that no
one in the home could play, and several tanning beds.
Meanwhile,
down in Mexico, David Ghantt was repeatedly calling for more money. He
soon learned that Steve Chambers had paid someone to kill him, so the
man who actually stole the money spent most of his time alone in his
hotel room, eating M&M’s, listening to the Eagles, smoking
Marlboro Lights, and reading comic books. When the authorities finally
found him, Ghantt gratefully said, “Please tell me you’re an FBI
agent.”
Four
years after the heist, the FBI had arrested and convicted 24 people and
located or accounted for 95 percent of the money, but the folklore
surrounding the gang that couldn’t steal straight lingers. In this
book, Jeff Diamant uses his inside knowledge as lead reporter on the
story for the Charlotte Observer to fill in all the hilarious
details of a story that has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, America’s
Most Wanted, America’s Dumbest Criminals, and Discovery Channel’s
“The Unperfect Crime.”
about
the author
Jeff Diamant also wrote a story based
on this heist for the Washington Post’s “Sunday Style”
section. After graduating
from Yale University, Diamant worked for the Connecticut Post, the
Associated Press, and the Palm Beach Post, as well as the Charlotte
Observer. Since January 2000, he has been with the Star-Ledger
in New Jersey.
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