Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Page #4

you know, sent to Dubrovnik

or Bosnia to kill, to rape.

I like this area, I really do.

It's so green.

This is the street where

I spent many hours during the '90s,

because I was demonstrating against

Slobodan Milosevic and his rule.

It has very strong

and very fresh memories.

I mean, just...

We tried to say,

"Look, it's time for you to go.

"You are taking us

into total disaster."

It is just interesting to pass here

after so many years.

Nice treat.

REPORTER:
'It's time to turn up

the pressure on Yugoslavia,

'the European community

decided today.

'Behind closed doors,

'they imposed immediate trade

sanctions against Yugoslavia,

'and the UN Security Council

is to be asked

'to coordinate an oil embargo.'

What we've decided today

is to impose

sanctions on the whole of Yugoslavia.

Over time, that will certainly

build into an effective pressure.

I don't know how long.

MIKE:
By the end of '94,

it was the core of Milosevic' regime

and activities.

You know, times were such

that you don't know

what tomorrow's going to bring.

We all took this rhythm of,

"Come on, come on,"

smuggling everywhere,

crime everywhere,

nobody thought about real jobs.

I mean, there's no real job.

I had a good deal of money.

When there was a job, cracking safe,

I would go abroad for a month

or two.

It was a good job, profitable, you

know, we were dancing to the music.

It was the time of turbo-folk music.

Every time I hear it, I feel chaos.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

Everybody was trying to swindle you,

rob you, cheat,

it was bare survival -

just deceit after deceit.

There was not a single night that

somebody wasn't beaten up or killed.

The black market has flourished

under the sanctions.

There is a widespread network

of illegal dealings in all spheres

and it is done with the quiet

consent of Serbian government.

MILENA:
It is the truth that crime

erupted during the wars,

which is usual and expected.

Many people became criminals,

but not all.

We all had choice.

It wasn't easy, it was difficult.

I could become prostitute or

drug smuggler or oil smuggler,

but I've not.

THUNDER RUMBLES:

REPORTER:
'It's not over yet.

'Hundreds were kicked out of Kosovo

today, literally -

'kicked and beaten at the border

'within sight of freedom.

'And so, the biggest forced

exodus in Europe goes on

'with enough bitterness to ensure

'that Albanians and Serbs will find

it hard ever to live together again.'

Europe couldn't do much, you know,

it was getting too big -

refugees from Bosnia,

from Kosovo, from Croatia...

..and 70% of these refugees

went to Europe,

and so the criminal went to Europe,

and this is the beginning

of Pink Panther.

MILENA:
Some change just happened

in 2000 -

a few people started to rob

really, really big values.

OK, they are using guns.

This is to scare.

That is the only purpose of gun,

but one of their condition

is no victims.

They were actually creating

the signature

of what we know now as

Pink Panthers.

And as one Panther said,

"After that, you have ten years

of very good life."

MIKE:
So 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,

a fiesta, music, dancing,

just some kind of noise.

That was what we were waiting for -

some kind of noise that they

couldn't hear us

banging through the walls.

Because the crooks need time,

they're more likely to hit

safes on weekends or holidays.

They're clever about finding ways to

do it without attracting attention.

There was four of us plus one guy in

a van.

We were completely

hidden by the people in the street.

FIREWORKS AND STREET CHATTER

We were all dressed up,

we had our masks, bodysuits,

completely covered up -

you couldn't see us at all,

and now the action could begin.

RUBBLE BREAKS:

We only needed to pickaxe the wall.

In the end, there was a hole this big

and we squeezed through it

into the boutique behind.

We knew everything that was in a

glass case was alarmed. It's a trick.

They always do this.

They alarm cheap stuff like a decoy.

But the real booty is in the save!

So we got to the safe, we try to take

it out with the pickaxe...

But we couldn't. We were looking

at it and there was no chance.

Then we saw the screws were inside

the concrete

and we had the idea to lift it up

with the car jack.

Lucky there was one in the van.

We got out, we took the safe out

of the shop and we put it in the van.

People around us,

fiesta, fireworks - incredible.

Thing is, there's no panic

when you do the job.

The panic begins when you run.

But we drove away through

the people.

And we went away into the woods.

We got out by a lake,

I remember.

Somewhere dark, somewhere safe.

Somewhere secure.

And then we began to open the safe.

You get the safes

that are mechanical, numerical,

with locks, and you get the digital

ones. I can crack them all.

Digital safes are the easiest

to open.

You take some powder and dust them

and you can see the fingerprints

and you know everything.

Numerical ones are the hardest.

You have to use your hearing,

you have to have very good hearing

and a good memory.

This is very difficult.

But in this case we couldn't open it.

We tried everything.

We made phone calls.

I spoke to another safe expert.

But we gave up that night.

You can't sleep.

You can't sleep, for God's sake.

We're all in this together,

we're all friends

but with this kind of loot, your

brain works on different frequency.

You could have two or three million

euros

and you don't know what will happen.

I don't know. Money is money,

you can't separate.

If one of us is missing,

he could take it all.

WOMAN:
I was in the flat on my own.

I was already worrying

why they were not back yet.

They didn't call,

no phone calls at all

because that was the arrangement.

I didn't know what was happening,

all kinds of thoughts were going

through my head.

I would often cry

and I wanted to get out of the flat

but I was told not to do that.

Sometimes I wouldn't even

care about the money.

I waited for HIM, not the loot.

We had to wait for the morning to

buy additional tools that we needed.

We bought two more crowbars, one big,

one small, we took another

pickaxe and we thought we could do

something with burning gas.

And when we had the tools,

we went back to the lake.

We were guarding the van outside

and inside we could speak

and pick until finished.

THUNDER CRACKS:

It took over an hour

to open the safe.

When you open a safe

and you see it's a full, full safe...

There's the feeling, it's like,

a feeling you might faint any moment.

I love that!

And in this safe there was plenty

of stuff. There was really a lot.

We found six bags

that we call rolls.

It was three stones,

three bags of stones, two with

bracelets

and one with watches. Er...

In the newspapers,

when it came about the robbery,

it said the value three million.

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