CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- A woman who bought herself breast implants and a $635,000 house with loot from a $17 million Loomis, Fargo & Co. heist has been sentenced to more than 7 1/2 years in prison.
Michele Chambers was one of 21 defendants in the 1997 robbery of a vault at the armored car company -- one of the biggest heists of its kind in U.S. history. Twenty people pleaded guilty; one was tried and convicted.U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen on Tuesday sentenced Chambers to seven years and eight months behind bars and ordered her to repay $4.8 million.
Chambers' husband, Steven Chambers, was one of the ringleaders along with David Scott Ghantt, a former Loomis employee. Steven Chambers was sentenced earlier to more than 11 years in prison.
Within a month of the robbery, the Chamberses moved out of their mobile home. When agents raided their luxurious new home, they found such things as a large oil painting of a dog in military uniform and more than $720,000 in cash in a desk.