Loomis Fargo Heist: $17 Million Stolen in One Blow

A vault supervisor named David Ghantt drove a company van loaded with $17.3 million in cash out of the Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Loomis, Fargo and Company on the evening of October 4, 1997, executing the second largest cash robbery in United States history. Ghantt had been recruited by a former coworker, Kelly Campbell, who was connected to a group of friends and associates who had devised the scheme. The plan was simple but the aftermath was not: Ghantt fled to Mexico with a small portion of the money while the remaining conspirators stayed in Charlotte and immediately began spending in ways that attracted attention. Several of the participants, who had been living modestly, suddenly purchased new cars, luxury homes, and expensive jewelry within weeks of the heist. The FBI began its investigation almost immediately and found that the spending patterns of Ghantt's associates pointed directly back to the Loomis Fargo vault. Ghantt was captured in Mexico after one of the conspirators attempted to have him murdered to eliminate the trail. Over the course of the investigation, the FBI secured twenty-four convictions and recovered approximately 95 percent of the stolen cash. The case demonstrated that stealing a large amount of money is considerably easier than keeping it: the thieves had no plan for laundering the funds and no discipline to avoid conspicuous consumption. The heist was later adapted into the 2017 film Masterminds, a comedy that captured the absurdity of the crime more accurately than most heist films manage.