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Speaker 1: Basketball is a hugely popular sport in the Balkan States.

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Speaker 1: If you're a professional basketball player in say Serbia, you're

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Speaker 1: a big deal, a celebrity that said, no one can

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Speaker 1: play basketball forever. But when your time as a professional

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Speaker 1: athlete is over, there is another popular career you might

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Speaker 1: be able to presume. If you have the right set

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Speaker 1: of skills, the right connections, and the nerve, you could

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Speaker 1: become a criminal. I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based

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Speaker 1: in Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take you into

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Speaker 1: the world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves, the most

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Speaker 1: daring and e says for diamond thieves in the world.

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Speaker 2: Thirty to forty seconds, they're in, they're out.

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Speaker 1: They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables. Two

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Speaker 1: well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store in

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Speaker 1: London and walked out with sixty six million dollars in jewels.

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Speaker 1: They're called the Pink Panthers. They're a loosely connected group

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Speaker 1: of over educated, underemployed, ambitious young people who rose from

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Speaker 1: the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen nineties

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Speaker 1: to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across the globe,

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Speaker 1: often in broad daylight. This is infamous international The Pink

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Speaker 1: Panthers Story Episode five, Catch and Release. In the years

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Speaker 1: following the Balkan Civil Wars, crime is one of the

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Speaker 1: few steady lines of war available. Many ordinary citizens are

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Speaker 1: forced to resort to some form of criminality just to survive,

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Speaker 1: and the same goes for citizens who are not so ordinary.

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Speaker 1: OLIVERI Tcherkovich is a truly impressive woman, over six feet tall,

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Speaker 1: blond and beautiful. She radiates supreme confidence and once you

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Speaker 1: know her story, you can understand why she has had

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Speaker 1: a very successful career, actually at least two careers.

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Speaker 2: In shebroked.

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Speaker 3: That's my ex husband. He was a member of the

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Speaker 3: Pink Painters and he still is member of the Ping Pents.

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Speaker 1: Olivera mostly speaks Serbian. That's her son, Nicholas translating like

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Speaker 1: she says, her husband was a Pink panther, but that

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Speaker 1: was not the life he wanted for her.

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Speaker 3: He didn't want me to do that stuff because I

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Speaker 3: was the professional basketball player, so it was like unbelievable

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Speaker 3: for me to step in that side of the world.

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Speaker 1: You know, Olivera was a power forward for one of

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Speaker 1: Serbia's tom basketball teams, the Novasatska ze Ka. She made

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Speaker 1: good money and made smart investments around Belgrade.

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Speaker 3: I have you private business which did well. I had

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Speaker 3: a lot of funny all the time.

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Speaker 1: But when the civil wars in the Balkans break out

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Speaker 1: in the early nineteen nineties and sanctions are imposed on

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Speaker 1: Serbian Oliveri's team can no longer travel to compete in

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Speaker 1: international games. To continue playing professionally, she has to leave Serbia.

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Speaker 2: So it all started when she first came to Greece.

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Speaker 1: The Spina Papa Joryu is a freelance journalist in Greece.

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Speaker 4: In nineteen ninety one, the water upted in Yugoslavia, so

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Speaker 4: it was impossible for any kind of professionals to do

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Speaker 4: some living there. So she came in Greece in the

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Speaker 4: summer of nineteen ninety two to play professional basketball.

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Speaker 2: Because she was quite a star in Yugoslavia.

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Speaker 1: Oliveri is hired by one of the top teams in

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Speaker 1: Greece based in Athens. At first, she doesn't think of

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Speaker 1: her adopted city.

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Speaker 2: She wasn't very impressed.

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Speaker 4: She found the city a bit dirty, but it.

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Speaker 2: Was in Athens. Such a love noctio door.

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Speaker 1: Love who has a way of leading to trouble. The

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Speaker 1: man Olivera falls for in Athens has an interesting way

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Speaker 1: of making a living and some interesting associates too.

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Speaker 4: So it all starts now because the whole pink Panther's

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Speaker 4: thing is connected with her husband, who she.

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Speaker 2: Met in as.

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Speaker 1: Olivera said in an interview that she saw her husband

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Speaker 1: as a robin Hood figure stealing from the ridge, and

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Speaker 1: well that's where the robin Hood analogy kind of falls apart.

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Speaker 1: But it was her relationship with this man that leads

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Speaker 1: Olivera into her next profession.

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Speaker 4: When she got pregnant, she went back to Belgrade and

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Speaker 4: then it started.

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Speaker 2: So first she got in contact with the ring via

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Speaker 2: her husband.

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Speaker 1: This ring, as the Spina Papajoria calls it, is made

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Speaker 1: up of fellow Serbians who are doing brisk business in

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Speaker 1: Greece and across Europe.

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Speaker 4: This ring was bringing stolen goods to Serbia from abroad,

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Speaker 4: and it was mostly jewels and fashion brands, expensive fashion brans, clothing.

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Speaker 1: The sanctions against Serbia had created a super charged market

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Speaker 1: for stolen goods and it didn't just go away once

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Speaker 1: the sanctions were lifted, the Serbian economy was still in shambles.

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Speaker 1: On the streets of Belgrade, illicit merchandise was everywhere. Olivera's

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Speaker 1: son Nicholas explains how she got involved.

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Speaker 3: Through the relationship and marriage with him. She got closer

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Speaker 3: to those kind of people. So the people who still it,

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Speaker 3: they don't sell it like in real store, they sell

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Speaker 3: it like three times less price.

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Speaker 1: You know, Olivera can see there is an opportunity here.

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Speaker 1: She's got the legitimate businesses she's invested in around Belgrade,

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Speaker 1: and she certainly knows the right people.

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Speaker 3: So in Oliveda's mind, it was good point to start

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Speaker 3: buying the stuff from the criminals. And she already got

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Speaker 3: to the content with the people with the friends with

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Speaker 3: my father, so she got the idea to buy the

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Speaker 3: stolen stuff from them from the less money, and then

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Speaker 3: then sell them in the servia and earn like for

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Speaker 3: one day, she earns like one year basketball contract, you know.

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Speaker 1: With her fame, her looks and her connections, Olivera's business booths.

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Speaker 1: She told the British newspaper The Independent, quote, I even

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Speaker 1: had politicians, doctors and famous people coming to my makeshift

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Speaker 1: showroom to buy the stolen goods end of quote. She's

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Speaker 1: so successful that she outgrows her piecemeal suppliers. Here's Nicholas

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Speaker 1: translating for her again.

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Speaker 3: At the one point, they don't have so many goods

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Speaker 3: as I want to buy because I'm selling it every day.

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Speaker 3: So they don't have enough money to go to another

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Speaker 3: country to steal something.

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Speaker 2: They don't know where to go and what to steal that.

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Speaker 3: I want to make it faster to get to the

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Speaker 3: goods that.

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Speaker 2: I need to sell.

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Speaker 3: Then I'm going deeper and deeper to the crime.

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Speaker 1: Soon, Olivera was running her own tea.

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Speaker 2: Tea after a few months.

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Speaker 3: I am the absolutely one who is organizing the group.

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Speaker 1: She recruits the new crew members, and she has excellent

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Speaker 1: instincts for who will be a good getaway driver, who

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Speaker 1: is quick with tools, who will make the best team leader.

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Speaker 1: At first, on the very plans of Heights from Afar,

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Speaker 1: she carefully diagrams the store she's targeting, details the items

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Speaker 1: she wants her crew to steal. She makes a map

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Speaker 1: of the surrounding roads for their getaway. Her associates case

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Speaker 1: the store for weeks before striking. It's all working.

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Speaker 3: I have the people who are moving the stolen goods

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Speaker 3: by the borders. So I already have two or three

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Speaker 3: those personal stores in my own showrooms. So it's all circle.

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Speaker 3: All the people from the crime trust me because I

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Speaker 3: never come late to pay them. I always pay them

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Speaker 3: on time, and I'm doing it as someone who is

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Speaker 3: professional sports player, not a criminal. I have a sports discipline.

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Speaker 1: It is that sports discipline. By the late nineteen nineties,

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Speaker 1: Olivera has become a major figure among the Serbian criminal class,

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Speaker 1: one of the only women with her own crew. It's

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Speaker 1: a new kind of celebrity for her.

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Speaker 2: In the criminal circles.

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Speaker 3: I get famous, kind of popular. We are doing well,

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Speaker 3: and if you become a member of my group that

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Speaker 3: you're going to be reach in a few months.

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Speaker 2: So only one month you will.

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Speaker 3: Buy the best car, two months you will got the

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Speaker 3: new apartment in the luxury part of the city.

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Speaker 1: My colleague Alan Greenberg says Olivera's decision to join the

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Speaker 1: criminal world is not all that surprising.

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Speaker 5: For people of her generation. They really were forced to

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Speaker 5: get creative about how they were going to make a life.

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Speaker 5: Serbia was so cut off, the sanctions from the West,

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Speaker 5: just a general dismal economy, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I get that, But what I don't get is like,

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Speaker 1: why Olivera. She's in a much better position than most Serbians.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she is famous, she's got money, she is

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Speaker 1: kind of a star.

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Speaker 5: Definitely, she's head of the game in post war Serbia.

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Speaker 5: But when her basketball career was over, when she couldn't

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Speaker 5: play anymore and she wanted to have a business career,

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Speaker 5: she had to deal with the realities of life at home.

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Speaker 5: So she did get.

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Speaker 1: Creative, right, and we heard how they became very reliant

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Speaker 1: on the black market because of the civil war, and

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Speaker 1: that never really went away, did it, Right.

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Speaker 5: It becomes entrenched. It's very common and a lot of

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Speaker 5: the goods people need or want medicine, cigarettes, designer clothing, jewelry,

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Speaker 5: it comes from the West. People steal it there and

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Speaker 5: then they bring it home to Serbia and sell it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds familiar for so much of the region.

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Speaker 1: But what makes Serbia difference is that anger towards the West. Right,

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Speaker 1: they felt that they were being punished by the West,

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Speaker 1: and it seems like a lot of people felt justified.

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Speaker 1: Do you think it would be an exaggeration to say

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Speaker 1: that for Serbians it was almost patriofic to bring things

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Speaker 1: back from the wealthier countries to help people back home

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Speaker 1: in Belgrade.

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Speaker 5: I think that's true when you talk to people who

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Speaker 5: live through this period, or even ask people in Serbia

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Speaker 5: now about the pink panthers, there's this attitude like, sure,

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Speaker 5: crime is bad, robbery is bad, but the West is

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Speaker 5: rich and we have nothing, so the hell with them.

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Speaker 1: Olivera is happily running her own successful team of Belgrade thieves.

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Speaker 1: She and her husband have a son, Nicholas, but the

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Speaker 1: marriage doesn't end up working out. She leaves him and

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Speaker 1: finds a new love interest.

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Speaker 4: The story continues because she then was receiving the best

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Speaker 4: merchandise from a guy called Dragon Dragon yazid if I

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Speaker 4: pronounced it correctly, and she was so intrigued by this

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Speaker 4: personality of Dragon and she decided to come back to

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Speaker 4: Greece and meet him in person.

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Speaker 1: Dragon spelt drga n is a popular name in Serbia.

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Speaker 1: And to be clear, this Dragon is not Dragon Mickage,

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Speaker 1: the pink panther who is arrested in the train station

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Speaker 1: in France after trying to buy a ticket with a

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Speaker 1: five hundred euro note. This Dragon was running a team

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Speaker 1: of jewel thieves in Athens. He and Olivera had been

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Speaker 1: doing good business together. Then they meet in person and

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Speaker 1: they fall in love. He's ten years younger than Olivera.

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Speaker 4: Was probably something like very intense feeling the love at

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Speaker 4: first sight, so she decided this way to participate in

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Speaker 4: a robbery in a big hotel jewel resort. This was

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Speaker 4: in the summer of two thousand and five.

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Speaker 1: Olivera agrees to help Dragon case the jewelry store in

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Speaker 1: the luxury hotel. Like many of the female Pink Panthers,

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Speaker 1: her role is together intel on their targets, identify them

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Speaker 1: as merchandise, and assess the security. And like other women panthers,

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Speaker 1: she looks the part impeccably.

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Speaker 4: She visited the store before, pretending to be a wealthy

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Speaker 4: customer and being also a very impressive woman. She was

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Speaker 4: like a blonde one meter ninety two ninety three resuld,

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Speaker 4: so she didn't have much difficulty in frusuading the staff

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Speaker 4: in the junior store to show her the most expensive collections.

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Speaker 4: At the same time, she was screening the place to

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Speaker 4: see how security is like and pass the information to

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Speaker 4: her associates.

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Speaker 1: But after the robbery, oliver and her boyfriend hit a

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Speaker 1: stroke of bad block. They're in a routine traffic stock

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Speaker 1: when police discover incriminating evidence Dragon had left his cutting

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Speaker 1: tools in the trunk of their car.

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Speaker 2: She was arrested in them. She was really a starn.

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Speaker 4: You know how the media, the tabloids, they were like

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Speaker 4: the Amazon, the basketball. The Amazon was arrested and created

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Speaker 4: was a big thing.

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Speaker 2: So she found herself Jay.

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Speaker 4: Although she kept the court of contact of the gang,

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Speaker 4: she didn't give anue away in the court and she

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Speaker 4: denied any involvement, but still she.

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Speaker 6: Was in Jane.

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Speaker 1: Olivera and Dragon are both sentenced to prison on the

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Speaker 1: island of Crete. She serves six years, but when she

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Speaker 1: and Dragon are released, are they reformed? They or not.

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Speaker 1: In March twenty twelve, Olivera returns to Athens and teams

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Speaker 1: up once again with her boyfriend Dragon.

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Speaker 4: She decided to come to Athens this participate in a robbery.

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Speaker 2: And this actually wasn't the best.

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Speaker 4: Timing this particular moment they chose from the robbery because

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Speaker 4: it was really very strange.

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Speaker 2: There was another robbery taking place at the same time.

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Speaker 1: Next stor another robbery taking place next door at the

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Speaker 1: exact same time. It truly is terrible luck.

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Speaker 4: So the police were there and shooting starts, which is

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Speaker 4: not usually in Greece.

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Speaker 2: It's highly useful.

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Speaker 1: The Pink Panthers plan their heis carefully. They make every

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Speaker 1: effort to avoid anyone being heard. But this is something

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Speaker 1: no one could plan for. Olivera's boyfriend, Dragon is shot

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Speaker 1: three times.

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Speaker 4: So her boyfriend was wounded very very seriously, and he

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Speaker 4: end it's up in the hospital and he was in

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00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:23,680
Speaker 4: a coma for forty days.

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Speaker 1: Olivera manages to escape, but she is beside herself over Dragon.

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Speaker 1: If there was ever a time to get out, it

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Speaker 1: is now. But she can't.

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Speaker 2: She apparently quite emotional.

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Speaker 4: She couldn't leave him here like that, so she went

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Speaker 4: back into the house they used, and the police raided

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Speaker 4: the house and they found her in there, along with

255
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Speaker 4: a lot of incriminating the evidence from its robberies.

256
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Speaker 1: The police find masks, wigs, weapons, and fake identity documents.

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Speaker 1: Olivera is arrested and lands back in a Greek jail,

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Speaker 1: this time in the infamous Athens prison called Corrida Los.

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Speaker 1: Olivera loves to tell stories of her time inside Corrida Loss.

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Speaker 1: She claims that one cell made told her she had

261
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Speaker 1: killed her husband and his mistress then serve them in

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Speaker 1: a pie to the husband's parents, something out of a

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Speaker 1: Greek myth. But Olivera is unfazed by her experience there,

264
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Speaker 1: as she tells it, for many paying panthers, prison is

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Speaker 1: sort of finishing school. To be truly respected, you have

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Speaker 1: to do at least one stretch. Again, this is her

267
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Speaker 1: son Nicholas translating.

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Speaker 3: Every criminal believe in that you are so smart that

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Speaker 3: there is no way for you to get into the prison.

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Speaker 3: And you are thinking like that until your first time

271
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Speaker 3: go to the prison, and then you learn that you

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00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:56,200
Speaker 3: were just an amateur and you didn't know nothing about

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Speaker 3: the crime.

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Speaker 1: Prison, it turns out, is a crucial aspect of a

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Speaker 1: panther's credibility.

276
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Speaker 3: I don't know anyone in the pink painters that has

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00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,640
Speaker 3: not a serious prison sentence behind his back. Those who

278
00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,920
Speaker 3: say that they are so smart, they were pin ventors

279
00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:14,080
Speaker 3: and they never went to prison, that's all the lies.

280
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Speaker 2: That's not a true story.

281
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Speaker 3: So destiny of one good ping ventor is a lot

282
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,880
Speaker 3: of money, a lot of fast money, prison one hundred

283
00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:27,200
Speaker 3: percent for sure. After the prison, again fast money, and again.

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Speaker 1: Prison Olivera makes good use of her time at Carida Loss,

285
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Speaker 1: but she doesn't plan to stay long. Journalistic spinup a

286
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:37,040
Speaker 1: bar your you.

287
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,120
Speaker 4: She started painting in prison, and she discovered she was

288
00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:41,920
Speaker 4: quite good to sea.

289
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:46,160
Speaker 1: Olivera Tchirkouture's artistic talent is more than a hobby. It

290
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:48,720
Speaker 1: becomes part of her plan to escape.

291
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Speaker 4: So she had been thinking to escape since day one.

292
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Speaker 4: The prison officer was persuaded to let your.

293
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,840
Speaker 7: Paint the prison governor's office while the governor was away,

294
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Speaker 7: and this was golden opportunity because the office was fifteen

295
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,679
Speaker 7: meters from Colorida Lost prison entrance, that is, fifteen meters

296
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:08,360
Speaker 7: from freedom.

297
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Speaker 1: As you might expect, Olivera has worked through the logistics

298
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Speaker 1: carefully and she's patient.

299
00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,639
Speaker 4: So since started painting endless hours and waiting for the

300
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,760
Speaker 4: right moment, she had notified the Pink panther gun members

301
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:23,840
Speaker 4: to come to others and rent an apartment.

302
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:26,920
Speaker 1: Olivera manages to get permission to buy art supplies from

303
00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,680
Speaker 1: outside the present and have them delivered.

304
00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:31,760
Speaker 2: And of course this was part of the plan.

305
00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 4: So her collaborators were strolling for weeks on ends outside

306
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:40,200
Speaker 4: the prison walls, and the day comes Olivera is now

307
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,560
Speaker 4: in the prison governor's office, so she gives a signal

308
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Speaker 4: with her mobile phone, which she had managed to smuggle

309
00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,560
Speaker 4: into the prison, and when the gate opened, her cellian

310
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:53,520
Speaker 4: associate enters holding a bag with art supplies, and everything

311
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:57,080
Speaker 4: happened within seconds. The man hit the prison officer on

312
00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:00,199
Speaker 4: the head, and Olivera just walked out of prison and

313
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:04,720
Speaker 4: got on a motorbike that was waiting outside.

314
00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,919
Speaker 1: After the escape, Olivera heads on foot to the mountains

315
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:12,640
Speaker 1: of Macedonia. A young accomplice is waiting there near the border.

316
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 1: He shows her the route across the mountainous terrain. It's

317
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:21,040
Speaker 1: over one hundred and fifty miles. Olivera tapes her wrists

318
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,120
Speaker 1: and ankles as she would for a pro basketball game,

319
00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:28,280
Speaker 1: and she makes the climb. She's been given a map,

320
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,040
Speaker 1: some money, and has set up meetings with contacts along

321
00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:35,679
Speaker 1: the route to charge her phone and get more supplies.

322
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,359
Speaker 1: When she reaches the Serbian border, she finds a taxi

323
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:45,439
Speaker 1: to drive her the last few miles to Belgrade. The

324
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:50,040
Speaker 1: Greek press loved this story. Pink panther female prisoner vanishes

325
00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:53,520
Speaker 1: into thin air, exclaimed one headline. They called her a

326
00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:57,320
Speaker 1: spider lady and referred to her as an Amazon It

327
00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:01,359
Speaker 1: made for terrific copy. For Oliver, it's a point of

328
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:02,639
Speaker 1: pride again.

329
00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:06,359
Speaker 3: Her son translates, I'm the first and only woman ever

330
00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,200
Speaker 3: escaped from the prison in Europe.

331
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,280
Speaker 1: But like every true team player, she shares the credit

332
00:19:11,359 --> 00:19:11,760
Speaker 1: for the win.

333
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,600
Speaker 3: That's why I escaped from the prison. That's why I

334
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:18,359
Speaker 3: made it. I was smarked by the time to make

335
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,760
Speaker 3: a good plan for how to escape. But with all

336
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,240
Speaker 3: those people who are ready to give the life for you,

337
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 3: you cannot escape from the prison.

338
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:31,600
Speaker 1: But one of the craziest things about Oliver's story is

339
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 1: the fact that just a few months after escaping prison

340
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:39,160
Speaker 1: and walking back to Serbia, she returns for another job

341
00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:40,560
Speaker 1: in Athens.

342
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,119
Speaker 3: After I escaped. Three months later, I came back to

343
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,280
Speaker 3: the same city and we did the armed robbery of

344
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,040
Speaker 3: the jewelers store. Four days after we did it, well,

345
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:51,840
Speaker 3: they arrest me.

346
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:56,320
Speaker 1: Police raide Oliver's rented safehouse and find her with sixty

347
00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 1: five pounds of gold.

348
00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:03,960
Speaker 3: Oh I was convicted organizer of the criminal gang named

349
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:04,680
Speaker 3: Pink Panthers.

350
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,920
Speaker 1: This time, Oliver is sentenced to thirty two years on

351
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixteen charges of aggravated theft and three

352
00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 1: armed robberies. The authorities value the looted goods at more

353
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:23,159
Speaker 1: than five hundred million dollars. Back in prison again, she

354
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 1: is deprived of her art supplies naturally, so instead she

355
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:32,000
Speaker 1: turns to creative writing. She chronicles her criminal exploits in

356
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,280
Speaker 1: a kind of diary, but on appeal many of the

357
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:39,560
Speaker 1: charges against her are actually dismissed and her sentence is commuted.

358
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:44,080
Speaker 1: After five years, she's again out of prison, this time

359
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,080
Speaker 1: banned from returning to Greece.

360
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:50,280
Speaker 3: I am free from the prison since twenty seventeen, so

361
00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:54,600
Speaker 3: I decided to change my life. I serve my prison sentences,

362
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,119
Speaker 3: so I don't own anything to anyone. Any country is

363
00:20:58,160 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 3: not looking for me.

364
00:20:58,880 --> 00:20:59,679
Speaker 2: Anymore, Oliver.

365
00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 1: She's done with the life of crime.

366
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:06,080
Speaker 3: To step up out of the crime, it's really really hard.

367
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,400
Speaker 3: You need a lot of money to continue the life

368
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 3: that you get used to by doing that crime stuff.

369
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: And so she's turned the story of her criminal past

370
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:19,040
Speaker 1: into a new enterprise. She has speaking engagements, she's a

371
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,960
Speaker 1: YouTube star. And remember that prison diary she kept, She's

372
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:27,600
Speaker 1: turned it into three books. They're called I Pink Panther,

373
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: I Pink Panther two and I Pink Panther three all

374
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 1: have sold quite well in the former Yugoslavia. There's even

375
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:39,160
Speaker 1: a TV series based on her books that's being developed

376
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:43,240
Speaker 1: in Serbia. Olivera told the Greek journalist that she hopes

377
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 1: Uma Thurman will play her in the Hollywood version.

378
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 3: I'm representing not just the crime story. I'm representing my

379
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 3: life and my character, and my character is the character

380
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 3: of the winner.

381
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: Oliveri. Tcherkovich says that prison is a necessary part of

382
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: the criminal education of any pig Panther, but there is

383
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 1: a limit to how much time behind bars a panther

384
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:16,959
Speaker 1: is willing to spend, and as Oliveri's story shows, a

385
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: prison break is not that different from a heist. Both

386
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 1: involved tight security and armed guards. To pull either of

387
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: them off, you need careful planning, precision, and ingenuity, and

388
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 1: Oliveri is not the only Panther to stage an escape

389
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 1: that has all the flare and theatrics of one of

390
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 1: their heists. Over the years, the Panthers carried out prison

391
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:45,840
Speaker 1: breaks all across Europe. In two thousand and nine, a

392
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:49,600
Speaker 1: Panther from Bosnia was arrested after robbing a jewelry store

393
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 1: in Switzerland and given a six year sentence, but he

394
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: decided he would rather not stay the full time, and

395
00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen he was sprung from his Swiss prison

396
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: by his fellow Panthers. The story was a sensation, like

397
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 1: in this report from ABC News, the media just could

398
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 1: not get enough of it.

399
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 8: Today, two vehicles crashed through the perimeter, pushed through layers

400
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 8: of barbed wire, got ladders up over the last of

401
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,360
Speaker 8: the wire so their guy could climb over to them.

402
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,440
Speaker 1: And so the Pink Panther gang strikes again. The trucks

403
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,920
Speaker 1: barreling through the gates, the ladders thrown over the wall,

404
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 1: the prison yard paralyzed by gunfire. But if you take

405
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,360
Speaker 1: a closer look at the actual operation, much of it

406
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: starts to seem like a spectacle designed to draw the

407
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 1: attention of the media. Jack Johnson is an American expert

408
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 1: on prison systems who's worked for the Federal Bureau of

409
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: Prisons for the past twenty three years.

410
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 9: I will tell you that what you described to me

411
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 9: is just people practicing a trade, having a career criminal orientation,

412
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 9: and the escape is part of the trade. This is

413
00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 9: rod interrelated organized criminal activity that's very regimented and very

414
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 9: methodical and so as brazen as it sounds, it probably

415
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 9: was calculated.

416
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 8: It was to be overkill, you know what I mean.

417
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 8: They didn't even need all that firepower. The guards didn't

418
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 8: have guns, So like a sensational as the escape sounds,

419
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 8: they know that they're not going to get resisted.

420
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,880
Speaker 1: The po wasn't in. Panther who made this dramatic escape

421
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 1: had only two years left on his sentence. In another

422
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,920
Speaker 1: Panther prison break, the men who escaped had just one

423
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:36,440
Speaker 1: year remaining. Like stealing jewels who can't easily sell, these

424
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: prison breaks seem as much about the Pink Panther's own

425
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 1: mystique as anything else.

426
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 8: I keep going back to the oneywhere the person's a

427
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,679
Speaker 8: year from release, you know, So what's the motivation for

428
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 8: something like that? Has to be more than just getting

429
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 8: somebody out of prison, So I think maybe it is

430
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 8: a lot of this is by design for the publicity,

431
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 8: for the sensationalism and the publicity.

432
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: Captain rve Konnon of the Paris Police had arrested the

433
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: Pink Panther, named Dragon Mikage after a high stat a

434
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:09,680
Speaker 1: ski resort in the French Arms. Mikitch is a big

435
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:14,160
Speaker 1: man six foot six and his fit. Conan had heard

436
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,360
Speaker 1: that he did two thousand push ups a day. That's

437
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: why Conan had immediate doubts that the French authorities would

438
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: be able to secure their prisoner. And he told them, so,

439
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 1: I've been to.

440
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,880
Speaker 10: The prison to interview this guy. Okay, he was two

441
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,480
Speaker 10: met as tall. That was impressed because the guy, he

442
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 10: was just a muscle. And I disc got after that

443
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 10: with the god of the prison. I said, okay, guys,

444
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 10: you know the guy.

445
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 2: Is very very fit.

446
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 6: You should be very careful.

447
00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 10: And one week after that, at Conando attacked the prison

448
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 10: with a K forty seven.

449
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 1: It was the afternoon of October sixteenth, two thousand and five.

450
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: Mikitch had just entered the prison yard for his daily

451
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: exercise when two pink panthers pulled a venop outside the

452
00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: prison walls, threw a ladder and wirecutters over the wall,

453
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:05,239
Speaker 1: and then while the shop at the guards with an

454
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: AK forty seven, Mikitch climbed the ladder, jumped into the

455
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,160
Speaker 1: van and they all drove off.

456
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 10: They shot on the prison and they liberate the guy,

457
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:16,679
Speaker 10: and the gay disappeared nothing.

458
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 2: He was totally lost.

459
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: It's widely assumed that dragon, Mikic went straight back to Serbia,

460
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 1: where he could live openly beyond the reach of French

461
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: law enforcement, much to Captain Connan's frustration. Another person who

462
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: proved difficult to keep behind bars is Milan le Poya.

463
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: In our last episode, we said that Milan had also

464
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: managed to escape prison before his dramatic arrest in the

465
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,360
Speaker 1: French border town of Jacques in two thousand and eight.

466
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 1: Here's how he ended up in jail that first time.

467
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: Milan was wanted for the heist at the Hooper watch

468
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: and jewelry shop in Liechtenstein. He was caught during a

469
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: border crossing when Swiss police were able to match his

470
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: fingerprints to the Liechtenstein robbery.

471
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 6: Milan Librier was first arrested in two thousand and six

472
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,160
Speaker 6: when he entered Switzerland from France, and he was extraducted

473
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 6: to US.

474
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: Robert Wallner is the prosecutor General for Liechtenstein. After Milan's

475
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 1: arrests and extradition, he was held in the country's only

476
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: jail well he awaited trial.

477
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 6: We thought we could bring him to trial, but he

478
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 6: didn't have the intention to stay with us and our

479
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 6: polices is not really very often confronted with criminals of

480
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 6: black calaber. So what he did was he had meticulously

481
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 6: planned to flee our small jail.

482
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 1: Liechtenstein is tiny population just under forty thousand, and the

483
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 1: single small jail is all they have. The police there

484
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,959
Speaker 1: are more used to dealing with white collar crime. Serious

485
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 1: criminals are typically exported to Austrian prisons, and Milan happened

486
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: to know that the jail he was in did not

487
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: have a hospital on its grounds.

488
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,560
Speaker 6: He one morning went to the fitness room in the

489
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 6: jail and he smashed his hand with a weight and

490
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 6: he was taken by two policemen to our local hospital here,

491
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 6: and that's when two men entered the hospital with kalashnikovs

492
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 6: and they managed to free him, and then it was gone.

493
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 1: Despite its reputation as a finishing school for pink panthers,

494
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: prison was not where Milan Lipoye wanted to be. In

495
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, he had plans, and just a

496
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 1: few months later the world would see those plans come

497
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: to life as he and Boyana Mitch drove a pair

498
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: of Audis through the plate glass doors of the Waffi

499
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: Moll in Dubai. Milan's escape from the Liechtenstein jail might

500
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: have been a sore point for Robert Walner, but Warner

501
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 1: would see his prisoner again.

502
00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 6: But he was re arrested later and extradited us again

503
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 6: in twenty ten, and this time we looked after him

504
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 6: very carefully until the trial and he wasn't able to

505
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 6: escape again.

506
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: Lalipoe was convicted for his role in the Lectinstein heist

507
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 1: and sentenced to nine years in prison. This time he

508
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: served his time. Coming up next on Infamous International, The

509
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: Ping Panthers Story.

510
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 2: Guys are hungry, they want to make some money.

511
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: When it comes to the Ping Panthers, it's hard to

512
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 1: know if this is a highly organized criminal syndicate.

513
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 2: You have a bunch of these organizations.

514
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 5: They're like sales, you know.

515
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 1: Or an informal network of thieves.

516
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 11: It doesn't necessarily make sense that there's this one centralized hierarchy,

517
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 11: either very complicated it's very hard to follow the money.

518
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: Or something else entirely.

519
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 3: We can say it was some kind of joint venture

520
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 3: business between organized crime and the state.

521
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 1: That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panthers Story.

522
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: Infamous International. The Pink Panthers Story was produced by Best

523
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by me

524
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 1: Natalia ant Lava and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,

525
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: Suszanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz

526
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios Executive producer Adam Pinkis,

527
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, associate producer Hannah

528
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: Libovitz Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler.

529
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: For Koda Story, reporting by Land Greenborough with associate producer

530
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gaylon Mullins and

531
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Mac

532
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: Degora and Paul Dallas. This has been an exactly right production.

533
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 1: Executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia hart Stark, and Daniel Kramer,

534
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: with consulting producer Kyle Ryan