Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Page #2

a lot of phone calls...

..finding sources on the places

you would never believe

you can find them.

That usually meant being on the road

all the time,

travelling to the region

all the time,

meeting all kinds of people

all the time.

I must talk to dozens of different

people,

all kinds of people,

meet them, be ready to meet them

at any time.

You must make them trust you -

that you are not going to

talk to the police,

that you are not going to put

any of them in danger.

If you know, when you do something

so extraordinary which attracts

the attention of the whole world

and many people say, "Bravo,

you robbed the bigger criminals."

Well, that can light some fire

inside. I believe so.

OK, so if we start with...

Could he just introduce himself?

OK, Mike, so we've agreed that we

will record this interview,

but not show your face.

So, we'll use your real words

but we'll animate you and your voice.

No face. Not my real voice.

So, tell me, who are the

Pink Panthers?

Well, I don't have a badge that

says Pink Panther on it.

We are a network of teams

working together

and as I was involved,

I became part of the network.

Everybody has their specific job

to do, understand?

So we all depend on each other.

Those in the inner circle are called

family.

But you have guys who don't know who

their bosses or associates are.

You have to be in with them

for a long time dealing with these

kind of bigger jobs.

You get tips from your own

supervisor,

but there is also a wider

chain of command.

You never know where you stand in

the hierarchy,

because you never meet the boss.

You don't know this guy is the big

boss. There's no such thing.

No big boss.

You need a brain, knowledge.

And experience to do this work.

This means the jobs that we do and

the other gangs that do sex, drugs,

murder, they rarely cross over.

So, tell me,

what is it about the diamond?

I don't know why people spend

money on diamonds.

I don't suffer from this

showing off.

I have a Rolex, but as a souvenir.

But diamonds, nah, they don't

attract me.

For me, diamonds mean good cash.

Nothing else.

Not anyone can do this job.

You must be born to do it.

You must firstly trust in yourself...

..because if you are weak,

you can't do it.

Women in the Panthers have to

be...exceptional.

Exceptional.

I was extremely good looking.

30kgs less.

I had long red hair at the time.

Although I had frequent

transformations, very frequent.

I would be sometimes blonde,

sometimes brunette.

You can only have one in each gang.

And we have high requirements for

the women.

They have the leading roles.

They have to do the main job,

so they do the scouting,

they enter, they record

and they bring the plan.

That means the woman has to be

intelligent,

she has to be beautiful and she has

to love money.

The guys do a great majority of jobs.

But they also need a woman on their

team.

Everyone always thinks it's the men,

men, men.

But without woman nothing would be

done.

Lela has to be dressed in most

expensive clothes, you know?

Most elegant clothes, wearing

expensive jewellery.

Also to have her own chauffeur.

She had to act exactly like Madonna.

I had to look very powerful. It was

stuff by Burberry, then Chanel.

Whatever was in and whatever was

popular.

I wouldn't even know some of the

brands that existed.

But the stuff purchased, it was well

known that it was very expensive.

THUNDER RUMBLES:

ALARM BLARES:

So, how did it all begin?

In the beginning it was individuals.

Small shops, casinos.

We went where there was money, gold.

And eventually, jobs got bigger

and better.

When I was in Italy, I worked with

this guy from Kosovo.

Like his apprentice.

He could open a safe in two minutes.

We were together for four years

and by the end, I could open a cat

in no time.

What's the cat? The cat,

we call a cat, the safe.

Jewellery is like a magnet

for crime.

It's worth a lot and the crooks

want it. Hello, I'm Mike for...

Jewellery crime is big business,

often run by organised criminals

who won't hesitate to use violence

in the city, suburbs or out in the

country.

Jewellery crime causes $1.1 billion

in losses each year

from all sources, including

consumers.

But in most stores,

most of the jewellery does end up

here at closing time,

and even though it's not as common

as you might think,

the safe is still a target.

I have a lot to tell you about

these robberies,

and there were many, but the best

job I did was in Spain.

Perfect plan.

The jewellery shop was a perfect

target.

It was a beautiful boutique,

you know.

Very high class.

There was, in this city, a most

beautiful jewellery shop.

Everything with diamonds. Rings with

diamonds, bracelets, necklaces.

Very beautiful.

Jewellery rarely achieves that

kind of sparkle, very rarely,

but we had no access,

no access at all.

So we had to do it in a different

way.

We tried many ways.

We had different ideas about the job

and then, finally, we had the idea -

just to hire a shop next door.

Next to the jewellery shop was

the souvenir shop.

In order to get to the

jewellery shop,

we needed to go through this second

shop first.

She met the Spanish shop owner

and befriended him.

She had to lure the guy into a trap.

I didn't go to seduce him,

but my very appearance

contributed to his joy.

He employed me at his place.

Not to work, because I couldn't speak

the language well enough,

but to oversee things.

She had to do a good job

because we needed to gain his trust.

Of course, her beauty helped.

He thought they could get closer,

that they would be

together every day.

Well, I don't see why I should feel

guilty.

It is his problem that he

fell in love with me

and that my presence brought him

lots of pleasure.

I couldn't do anything about that.

So when she was there, she examined

the wall,

which gave us an idea that we could

knock it down

and where we could exit...

..which way we could run.

She was there so she could scan

and find that information,

see if the plan would be possible.

The reason why I spent a lot of time

with the Spanish guy was so that

I could observe exactly

when the jewellery shop closed -

when would it open, when they

would go out for a coffee,

for how long they would be out.

Generally, it was all about them.

In fact, I'm the most important part

of the job, and I'm aware of that.

My one mistake would be their fall,

so if I make an error somewhere,

they are doomed.

Tell me about your life growing up

in Yugoslavia.

I'm from the border of Montenegro

and Albania, actually.

I'm 48. My father was born Muslim

and a communist.

Tito.

He was our idol.

APPLAUSE:

Tito and the Communist Party of

Yugoslavia declared

the Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945.

People now remember of that

period like the golden age.

He was a very authoritarian ruler.

He liked his position.

But he also had a strong sense of

what is necessary to do.

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