$17.3 million in cash was robbed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997.
An FBI criminal investigation ultimately resulted in the arrest and conviction of eight people directly involved in the heist, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them, and the recovery of approximately 88% of the stolen money.
[citation needed] With the plan in place, Ghantt sent a newly employed co-worker home early (reportedly at 6 p.m) who had been assigned to train with him.
Then, keeping with the plan, Ghantt took $50,000 (the maximum that could by law be taken across the border without further authorization) with him and left for Mexico, winding up at the popular Yucatan Peninsula resort-island of Cozumel.
He and his wife, Michelle, moved from their mobile home in Lincoln County to a luxury house in the wealthy Cramer Mountain section of Cramerton.
[citation needed] An additional tip reached the FBI when Michelle Chambers made a large deposit at a bank.
followed by "Don't worry, it is not drug money," the bank filled out a suspicious activity report, which ultimately reached the FBI.
He also took various measures to change his appearance, such as shaving, after a patron at a restaurant pointed out to him that he "looked like the man who robbed a bank of $20 million.
They received sentences ranging from probation for the safe deposit box buyers to 11 years and three months in federal prison for Steve Chambers, who was also fined more than $3,500,000.
Michelle Chambers received a harsher sentence than Ghantt — seven years and eight months — because she had violated several bond conditions.
[citation needed] The defendants were the targets of many barbed jokes in Charlotte and across the country, in part because of their extravagant spending.
[8] Rocket Science, a 1998 double-disc album by Charlotte-based radio personalities John Boy & Billy, includes a track ("Marvin: The Loomis Caper") mocking the defendants.