Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
How He Pulled Off a $17 Million Robbery | The Loomis Fargo Bank Heist
Mon, 25 Nov 2024
$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. It was later turned into the Hollywood movie Masterminds. Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What happened during the Loomis Fargo bank heist?
I had a pile of money that was about three and a half, four foot tall, nine feet long, and weighed over a ton. The F-250 van that I was loading, the armored van, when I started the back bumper was pretty high up on me. When I was done, it was pretty low. If I do this, I'm going to take enough money so that I won't have to ever come back because I won't be able to.
So you're out of the country before they even know the place has been robbed.
I'm eating lunch in Mexico about the time the news breaks.
Loomis was robbed, and these two knuckleheads were living in a double-wide. They just bought a multi-million dollar mansion in this small town with cash. They're driving expensive vehicles, and the guy's a knucklehead, and somehow or another he's come up with all this cash.
Yeah, and they've decided they're going to kill me. Right. He's got a buddy. McKinney, and they're going to hire him. He's going to go down to Mexico and kill me.
Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I am here with David Gant. David Gant was – he's – should I say bank robber or bank robber or –
That's usually the title I end up with.
Yeah, bank robber for Loomis Fargo. One of the largest Loomis Fargo robberies in history. It was $17.5 million. And it was, they say this over and over again, that it was literally a ton of cash. And so we're going to do an interview and I appreciate you guys watching. And so check this out.
Like we were saying, I was saying earlier, I actually, I know I'm recapping all this, but I actually, prior to getting in trouble myself, watched a program on you. And then I watched another one where I think I was incarcerated and And it always reminded me of a story that I wrote in prison. And I kept going back to your story because the story I wrote was very similar to yours.
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Chapter 2: How did David Gant plan the robbery?
Yeah. I'm eating lunch in Mexico about the time the news breaks.
So what was the, they were supposed to get you five million? Five million, yes. Okay. And how much did you leave with?
Probably about $45,000 or $50,000, thereabouts.
Okay. So when did you first see that it was on the news?
I had to, since I was in Mexico, I had to actually kind of dig. And I found, what was it? I found a newsstand they had, might have been the New York, yeah, the New York, Times. And they had, it didn't make the front page, not for them. And I found a little blurb about it. I thought, okay, we're good. I didn't think it was that big of a story. I thought, all right, good.
I mean, I knew the FBI would be after me, but I didn't think that, I was pretty sure they wouldn't go digging into Mexico hard.
Right. But it became bigger later, right? Like it didn't when they started looking.
Yeah. Okay. And that takes us back to, you know, the van that they left with.
3 million in it I think it was yeah they had an issue moving all there was such a bulk because most of the money was in 20s right yeah so it was such it was so there was so much mass to it that they couldn't move it all yeah and they left like three and a half million in the in the what kills me is that they didn't come back for it yeah like they just left it yeah why would you leave money on the table right exactly why wouldn't you let me go remove the money dump the money that you've got come back no one even knows it's gone yet yeah
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Chapter 3: What were the challenges faced during the heist?
Send it UPS. Easy peasy. Stick it in a car. They're not stopping cars going into Mexico. You just drive down here.
Could have bought a hoopty, an old station wagon, van, whatever. Filled it up. Drove it down. Done deal. Forget about me.
But that's not happening. What is happening?
The gist of it is they've had a meeting, and they've decided they're going to kill me. He's got a buddy, McKinney, and they're going to hire him. He's going to go down to Mexico and kill me.
Right, and the FBI hears this.
The FBI hears this, and that's when they really start looking to figure out exactly where I'm at in Mexico.
Right, because they have a bigger issue now. Yeah. Now it's not, okay, there's some missing money. We can print the money again. There's insurance. There's this and that. Now somebody's going to get killed, and they realize also that there's bigger players involved and more serious players where you were doing something that was nonviolent. You were taking advantage of an opportunity.
These guys are ready to start killing people. They think they're gangsters.
I went out of my way to avoid violence. Right. I didn't because, and I know this sounds hypocritical of me, none of that money was worth a drop of human blood.
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Chapter 4: How did David escape after the robbery?
Yeah, they had already arrested them, rounded them up. I think they had even got Bruno at the same time.
I want to say, and I don't know this, I do remember, and it's funny because I only watched a few bits and pieces. I'm really remembering this from seeing it 20 years ago. I want to say that... Chambers, they grabbed him and he told them where you were. I could be wrong. I do know that when they grabbed him, he immediately rolled over on everybody.
He rolled over like a hard-boiled egg.
Right. So he may have been... He may have told them exactly where you were, for all I know. Or maybe they had been tracing the phones and they had figured out by that point. I don't know. But they grabbed you. Did they bring you to a local police station? Or did they bring you straight to the airport?
No, they brought me... I spent the night with the Mexican federales. And they... we're going to big air quotes here, deport me from Mexico. Okay. And they put me on a airplane flight that just happened to have two FBI agents.
All right. So, okay. So they don't need to extradite you. Um, so you show up back in, did you, where'd you fly into? Um, flew, I think we went straight to Charlotte. Okay. You're processed by the marshals?
Marshals right there in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and they put me on the sixth floor, which is like their version of Max. Okay. Because the story had exploded.
Right. Did they explain to you, hey, these guys, they're going to kill you?
Oh, yeah. Me and the FBI agent had a long, long conversation. We actually became friends, oddly.
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Chapter 5: What led to the eventual capture of the robbers?
Yeah, how do you foresee that? And I look back on it in hindsight. If we'd have got that money into a Cayman Bank account, all of it, And he lived off the interest easy. I think the interest would have been $75,000, $80,000 a year.
There was no interest. If you put $5 million into, you know, if you put $5 million and lived off of $50,000, you could live for $50,000 in the Cayman Islands.
Yeah.
You might as well be making $300,000. But so... Okay, so what happened with you end up taking a plea? I mean, you can't go to trial.
Yeah, that's stupid. Almost no one that goes to federal court, almost everybody takes a plea of some sort.
Yeah, yeah. They've got like a 97% conviction rate. Unless you've got big bucks, you can't fight the government. No. Listen, I always say, look, even if you're guilty, you've got a 50% chance of being found. I mean, even if you're not guilty, you have a 50% chance of being found guilty. Oh, yeah. So what did you end up taking? Let's see.
Was it 96 months? It was like just a little over six years.
Okay. Did you take RDAP? Was there an RDAP program, a drug program to knock a year off?
I'm not. No. Obviously, you didn't take it. They didn't have it because they told me, oh, there's no drugs in your case. You don't get this. And so I got your standard issue, good time, 85% or whatever.
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Chapter 6: What was the aftermath of the Loomis Fargo heist?
Uh, I'm a heavy equipment operator for a construction company in Jacksonville. Um, Petticoat Schmidt. I've been there eight years and I've been, uh, in construction for about 15 or 17. Okay. Um,
Yeah. So, I mean, okay. So have you ever talked to the, I know you did an interview when you got out of prison. Yeah. But, you know, did you, have you ever seen the FBI agent or spoke with the FBI agent?
I met Mark, the FBI agent, at the premiere of Masterminds, the movie that they did. And we just picked up our friendship like before. Met his wife. She was really nice. Took a selfie with me. And I've never wished him any ill will. Right. Yeah. I mean, he's just, you know, he's just doing his job. He's doing his job.
And he's one of the few government, mostly when we think about government employees, we don't think real highly of them, but he was actually out there doing his, doing the job that we pay him to do.
Yeah, I was going to say there were some nasty – there was one really just nasty FBI agent on my case. And the other ones were just like – it's kind of like the guards. It's like the guards that are there that are just like – I'm sorry, COs. When you go to prison, some of them are just complete sadistic assholes. And the other ones are like, listen, man, this is just a job.
Like I just want to come punch the clock, sit down, please don't bother me. You know, let me get out. Let me do my thing. Let me go home. Like those are the guards that are great. Even if you're enforcing the rules, I don't mind that you enforce the rules, but you don't have to be a dick about it. Um, so yeah, I had some of the secret service agents and FBI agents that were totally cool.
I was totally cool with them. And then there was this one that was just a complete jerk.
It seems like there's always one, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's always, yeah. That's the one that makes them all look bad. Yeah. Um, Well, OK, so and now and so why are you why are you in Tampa?
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Chapter 7: How did the heist influence popular culture?
Each kid is valued at whatever. And they, when that check ends, you're, they have no use for you. Yeah. And, uh, In a country like America, that this goes on, that this happens, and our government screws up a lot, but this could be easily fixed. A program to help, they can improve that program easily.
Just ease them back into society, get a job. What's funny is there's lots of jobs. There's lots of jobs, and there's lots of jobs that you can make a decent living in and take care of yourself.
But if you don't even know they're out there and you're not being prepared to kind of acclimate yourself into society or ease yourself into society and just have it thrust upon you, you're not prepared for that as an 18-year-old.
Yeah. And they can do the same thing with the prison system. And I've told people, well, yeah, you want prison to be harsh. Cool. All right. I get that. What kind of, when they come out, what kind of, that guy's going to be your neighbor. What kind of neighbor do you want coming out of there? Do you want somebody that hasn't really changed?
Or do you want somebody, like one of my greatest accomplishments when I was in is, and I had to do it on the sly because he was in the Muslim Brotherhood and he wasn't supposed to be associating with us crackers. And I helped this guy, he was four,
better than 40 i helped him learn to read and to me that's one of my highest personal accomplishments right you know and granted he didn't like me i had no real reason to like him but i helped him read
Well, what's what's funny is that people want prison to be hard. They people get upset that, for instance, I did an interview with a guy the other day and somebody in the comments section because the guy ended up getting like a master's degree or a master. He got a college degree. I think he was trying to get his master's, but.
The guy was upset because he had gotten a college education while in prison. Now, granted, the guy had like 20 something, 25. I think he did 25 or 26 years. Yeah. So they was upset. Like, I can't believe that he's being taken care of. And he got an education. And my thought was.
the likelihood that he gets an education and gets out of prison and goes back is very low yes if he doesn't get the education there's a damn good chance he goes back to prison oh yeah so are you gonna bitch about are you bitching because about recidivism or are you gonna bitch because he got you're giving him an education because you got you can only pick one to bitch about so if you don't give him the education he goes back and now you're bitching about him going back to prison yeah
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