Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers

This programme contains some strong

language some scenes which some

viewers may find upsetting

CAR REVS:

TYRES SCREECH:

TYRES SCREECH:

Now, they're known as

the Pink Panthers.

They're a gang that steals jewels

from high-end stores all

over the world.

And one of their alleged members...

Armed with this Magnum revolver and

helped by an accomplice, he pounced.

We are talking about

an international criminal group

made up of more than 200 people.

They are organised

in independent cells

and they live in different countries.

These are all people

from the former Yugoslavia.

The core of the group

comes from Montenegro.

There is another substantial

group from Serbia.

CAR HORN BEEPS:

One of the Panthers said

that every robbery that is lasting

more than 22 seconds is a great risk.

CAR HORN BEEPS AGAIN

There's no alarm, no

security system, they can be good,

that cannot be broken.

Two hours, you're in another country

and you are safe.

That's what I like, you know.

I have a lot to tell you about

these robberies and there were many.

But the best job I've did

was in Spain.

We waited for a festival

that was about to take place

and we waited a long time.

It was some kind of

a religious thing, fiesta -

music, dancing.

Some kind of noise that they couldn't

hear us banging through the walls.

And now the action could begin.

PHONE DIALS:

PHONE RINGS:

My name is Novak, you know,

and people call us Pink Panthers.

HE LAUGHS:

And English people, they call us,

because of the film.

I read somewhere that one inspector,

I don't know where,

he said that we are terrorists

or something like that.

Modern terrorists,

but it's not true.

I mean, we are just taking something

unimportant for rich people,

for us - who doesn't have that,

you know?

HE LAUGHS:

We started with some houses,

you know,

some cars and something like that.

But jewelleries,

we find out, is much easier.

Jewellery's small, it's expensive,

it gets you more money.

We can be in China,

we can be in Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai.

Wherever they have rich stuff,

we can be there.

ALARM BLARES:

SEAGULLS SQUAWK:

Here, we are really in the middle

of the old town of Geneva.

And there you have all the...all

the biggest jewelleries

with million and million

of stuff in the windows.

There you have Chatila...

This jewellery was attacked

by the Pinks in 2009.

That mean they enter by this door

and after that,

there were, in this road,

two scooter...

You say scooter in English?

..were waiting and

when they finished the robberies,

they jump on the scooter

and they leave the place.

Gubelin was attacked

one or two times by the Pinks.

Graff - Graff Geneva...

..De Grisogono, Chopard, Adler...

About the statistics or numbers,

approximately we have 500 cases

of robberies and burglaries

made by the Pinks.

Speaking about the value

of all the robberies,

approximately 300 millions

of US dollars.

If you take all their crimes

together,

they are the best jewellery thieves

in the world.

I know, but like you say,

it's a Pink Panther!

And there are colleagues who give

me that one or two years ago.

They were involved in a case

we began here and they work on.

And they find this big Pink Panther

and they bring it here.

And it's a joke between

all the teams in Europe

working on the Pink Panthers.

PHONE RINGS IN BACKGROUND

PRODUCER:
Can you tell me, when did

you first hear of the Pink Panthers?

It was in 2000. At the beginning,

it was different.

For me, it was different

as the other teams

about the organisation -

it was more organised.

The action was very,

very fast, when they come.

SPEECH NOT AUDIBLE

'They have made a lot of robberies,

so that mean when they come,

'they are confident, they are sure

about "what I have to do".

'The preparation is very, very good.

'That means they come sometimes

some months before

'to try to find which jewellery

they are going to attack.

'And after that, to know exactly

how they are going to work,

'how many people they need to be

in there,

'how they are going to escape.

'And after that, they do

the robbery.

'Sometimes, working on bad guys,'

there is something very particular,

very special, between...

there is a respect but,

at the same time, it is like a game.

They know that we are hunting them.

Because it's a little bit like that

from Pacino and De Niro in the film.

It was like that,

but they are always movies.

They are not the reality. That's...

We just must remember

that they are bad guys

going inside jewellery with guns.

'We understood in this time

that they were able to do things,

incredible,

'that nobody had done before.'

The first time, we didn't know

that they were Pink Panthers.

You know, this name did not exist,

at this time.

The first time, we just think it was

one robbery or two robberies,

that's all.

We did not identify, the first time,

the importance of the group.

It was a challenge

cos they are

crossing the borders very fast,

after the robbery - very easily.

We started to understand

that it was a group.

The only thing we know - that they

were coming from former Yugoslavia.

So that's all we had, the first time.

And so we started to identify

the different city they were

coming from in former Yugoslavia -

especially Montenegro,

from Cetinje.

Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia.

Few Americans know little,

if anything, about Yugoslavia.

One reason is because not many

people know where to find it.

Actually, it's really quite simple -

just go to Italy and make a right.

Yugoslavia.

A popular misconception

about Yugoslavia is that

it is a neighbouring country

of the Soviet Union. In actuality,

it borders seven European countries,

none of them being Russia.

A bigger misconception than

the location, though,

is the country itself.

When most Americans

think of Yugoslavia,

this is not what comes to mind...

..or this...

..or this...

..or even this.

DOG BARKS IN THE DISTANCE

'The first time I heard about

Panthers were in 2004.

'It was a surprise.

'And my first thought

when newspapers published'

that the perpetrators

were three Serbs,

I said, "F***!

This is all we needed."

My second thought, however, was,

"Hmm, interesting.

"How very skilful people."

Because I didn't know

how they did it.

Well, before 2000,

we don't have Pink Panthers.

Some people started with

so big and exclusive heists...

..mostly in Europe, only Europe.

And after it, we have some of the

Panthers robbed out of Europe.

They went to Bahrain.

They went to Japan.

They went to Dubai.

I'm working right now for BIRN,

Balkan Investigative Reporting

Network.

And, at the moment, I am looking

for Pink Panthers, like I'm mad.

I'm working for more than

two years on this.

At first, I didn't believe it was

possible to find any of them.

Why would any say, "Look, I'm Pink

Panther, I'm going to help you"?

So that required a lot of work,

a lot of travelling,

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