WEBVTT - 5: Catch and Release 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.680 Basketball is a hugely popular sport in the Balkan States. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.320 If you're a professional basketball player in say Serbia, you're 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.560 a big deal, a celebrity that said, no one can 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:28.120 play basketball forever. But when your time as a professional 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.920 athlete is over, there is another popular career you might 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.360 be able to presume. If you have the right set 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.920 of skills, the right connections, and the nerve, you could 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:49.160 become a criminal. I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.519 in Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take you into 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:59.160 the world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves, the most 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.960 daring and e says for diamond thieves in the world. 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.679 Thirty to forty seconds, they're in, they're out. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.360 They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables. Two 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.200 well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store in 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.240 London and walked out with sixty six million dollars in jewels. 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:21.839 They're called the Pink Panthers. They're a loosely connected group 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:27.120 of over educated, underemployed, ambitious young people who rose from 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.800 the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen nineties 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.880 to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across the globe, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:42.760 often in broad daylight. This is infamous international The Pink 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:54.919 Panthers Story Episode five, Catch and Release. In the years 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.440 following the Balkan Civil Wars, crime is one of the 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:03.120 few steady lines of war available. Many ordinary citizens are 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.120 forced to resort to some form of criminality just to survive, 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.000 and the same goes for citizens who are not so ordinary. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.200 OLIVERI Tcherkovich is a truly impressive woman, over six feet tall, 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:21.320 blond and beautiful. She radiates supreme confidence and once you 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.960 know her story, you can understand why she has had 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.320 a very successful career, actually at least two careers. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:31.320 In shebroked. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.360 That's my ex husband. He was a member of the 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.560 Pink Painters and he still is member of the Ping Pents. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:42.360 Olivera mostly speaks Serbian. That's her son, Nicholas translating like 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.119 she says, her husband was a Pink panther, but that 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.200 was not the life he wanted for her. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:50.680 He didn't want me to do that stuff because I 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.840 was the professional basketball player, so it was like unbelievable 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.720 for me to step in that side of the world. 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.400 You know, Olivera was a power forward for one of 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.799 Serbia's tom basketball teams, the Novasatska ze Ka. She made 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.960 good money and made smart investments around Belgrade. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.399 I have you private business which did well. I had 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.160 a lot of funny all the time. 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.280 But when the civil wars in the Balkans break out 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.400 in the early nineteen nineties and sanctions are imposed on 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.600 Serbian Oliveri's team can no longer travel to compete in 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:29.440 international games. To continue playing professionally, she has to leave Serbia. 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.080 So it all started when she first came to Greece. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.880 The Spina Papa Joryu is a freelance journalist in Greece. 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.560 In nineteen ninety one, the water upted in Yugoslavia, so 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.800 it was impossible for any kind of professionals to do 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.800 some living there. So she came in Greece in the 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.160 summer of nineteen ninety two to play professional basketball. 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.480 Because she was quite a star in Yugoslavia. 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.240 Oliveri is hired by one of the top teams in 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.280 Greece based in Athens. At first, she doesn't think of 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:01.240 her adopted city. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:02.800 She wasn't very impressed. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.080 She found the city a bit dirty, but it. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.840 Was in Athens. Such a love noctio door. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.960 Love who has a way of leading to trouble. The 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.080 man Olivera falls for in Athens has an interesting way 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.320 of making a living and some interesting associates too. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:23.080 So it all starts now because the whole pink Panther's 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.400 thing is connected with her husband, who she. 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:26.039 Met in as. 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.760 Olivera said in an interview that she saw her husband 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.840 as a robin Hood figure stealing from the ridge, and 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.599 well that's where the robin Hood analogy kind of falls apart. 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.239 But it was her relationship with this man that leads 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.400 Olivera into her next profession. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.480 When she got pregnant, she went back to Belgrade and 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.200 then it started. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.680 So first she got in contact with the ring via 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:52.359 her husband. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.880 This ring, as the Spina Papajoria calls it, is made 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.800 up of fellow Serbians who are doing brisk business in 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:00.520 Greece and across Europe. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.880 This ring was bringing stolen goods to Serbia from abroad, 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:10.120 and it was mostly jewels and fashion brands, expensive fashion brans, clothing. 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.920 The sanctions against Serbia had created a super charged market 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.880 for stolen goods and it didn't just go away once 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.600 the sanctions were lifted, the Serbian economy was still in shambles. 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:26.880 On the streets of Belgrade, illicit merchandise was everywhere. Olivera's 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.520 son Nicholas explains how she got involved. 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.240 Through the relationship and marriage with him. She got closer 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.560 to those kind of people. So the people who still it, 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.039 they don't sell it like in real store, they sell 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:42.920 it like three times less price. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.679 You know, Olivera can see there is an opportunity here. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.800 She's got the legitimate businesses she's invested in around Belgrade, 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.000 and she certainly knows the right people. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.560 So in Oliveda's mind, it was good point to start 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.480 buying the stuff from the criminals. And she already got 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.320 to the content with the people with the friends with 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.800 my father, so she got the idea to buy the 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.040 stolen stuff from them from the less money, and then 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.440 then sell them in the servia and earn like for 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.680 one day, she earns like one year basketball contract, you know. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:17.480 With her fame, her looks and her connections, Olivera's business booths. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.719 She told the British newspaper The Independent, quote, I even 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.599 had politicians, doctors and famous people coming to my makeshift 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.839 showroom to buy the stolen goods end of quote. She's 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:36.560 so successful that she outgrows her piecemeal suppliers. Here's Nicholas 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:37.920 translating for her again. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.279 At the one point, they don't have so many goods 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.120 as I want to buy because I'm selling it every day. 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.599 So they don't have enough money to go to another 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:47.880 country to steal something. 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.960 They don't know where to go and what to steal that. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.640 I want to make it faster to get to the 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:54.200 goods that. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:55.080 I need to sell. 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.080 Then I'm going deeper and deeper to the crime. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.120 Soon, Olivera was running her own tea. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.200 Tea after a few months. 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.880 I am the absolutely one who is organizing the group. 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.120 She recruits the new crew members, and she has excellent 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.200 instincts for who will be a good getaway driver, who 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.360 is quick with tools, who will make the best team leader. 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.480 At first, on the very plans of Heights from Afar, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.800 she carefully diagrams the store she's targeting, details the items 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.559 she wants her crew to steal. She makes a map 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:32.360 of the surrounding roads for their getaway. Her associates case 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.840 the store for weeks before striking. It's all working. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.440 I have the people who are moving the stolen goods 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.920 by the borders. So I already have two or three 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.200 those personal stores in my own showrooms. So it's all circle. 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.240 All the people from the crime trust me because I 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.520 never come late to pay them. I always pay them 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.080 on time, and I'm doing it as someone who is 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.760 professional sports player, not a criminal. I have a sports discipline. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.440 It is that sports discipline. By the late nineteen nineties, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.520 Olivera has become a major figure among the Serbian criminal class, 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.600 one of the only women with her own crew. It's 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:12.400 a new kind of celebrity for her. 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:15.560 In the criminal circles. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.480 I get famous, kind of popular. We are doing well, 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.600 and if you become a member of my group that 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.280 you're going to be reach in a few months. 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:24.760 So only one month you will. 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.280 Buy the best car, two months you will got the 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.560 new apartment in the luxury part of the city. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.080 My colleague Alan Greenberg says Olivera's decision to join the 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.400 criminal world is not all that surprising. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.280 For people of her generation. They really were forced to 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.559 get creative about how they were going to make a life. 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.680 Serbia was so cut off, the sanctions from the West, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.600 just a general dismal economy, yeah. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.400 I get that, But what I don't get is like, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.479 why Olivera. She's in a much better position than most Serbians. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:01.320 I mean, she is famous, she's got money, she is 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:02.120 kind of a star. 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.360 Definitely, she's head of the game in post war Serbia. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.080 But when her basketball career was over, when she couldn't 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.840 play anymore and she wanted to have a business career, 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.600 she had to deal with the realities of life at home. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:16.040 So she did get. 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.280 Creative, right, and we heard how they became very reliant 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.920 on the black market because of the civil war, and 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.840 that never really went away, did it, Right. 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.440 It becomes entrenched. It's very common and a lot of 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:33.400 the goods people need or want medicine, cigarettes, designer clothing, jewelry, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.240 it comes from the West. People steal it there and 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.280 then they bring it home to Serbia and sell it. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.840 Yeah, that sounds familiar for so much of the region. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.800 But what makes Serbia difference is that anger towards the West. Right, 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.480 they felt that they were being punished by the West, 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:54.640 and it seems like a lot of people felt justified. 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.079 Do you think it would be an exaggeration to say 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.199 that for Serbians it was almost patriofic to bring things 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.240 back from the wealthier countries to help people back home 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:04.920 in Belgrade. 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.240 I think that's true when you talk to people who 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.600 live through this period, or even ask people in Serbia 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.640 now about the pink panthers, there's this attitude like, sure, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.640 crime is bad, robbery is bad, but the West is 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:31.720 rich and we have nothing, so the hell with them. 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.200 Olivera is happily running her own successful team of Belgrade thieves. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.520 She and her husband have a son, Nicholas, but the 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.960 marriage doesn't end up working out. She leaves him and 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:45.920 finds a new love interest. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.960 The story continues because she then was receiving the best 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.599 merchandise from a guy called Dragon Dragon yazid if I 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.040 pronounced it correctly, and she was so intrigued by this 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.960 personality of Dragon and she decided to come back to 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.200 Greece and meet him in person. 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:10.079 Dragon spelt drga n is a popular name in Serbia. 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.760 And to be clear, this Dragon is not Dragon Mickage, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.360 the pink panther who is arrested in the train station 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.280 in France after trying to buy a ticket with a 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.160 five hundred euro note. This Dragon was running a team 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:27.079 of jewel thieves in Athens. He and Olivera had been 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.680 doing good business together. Then they meet in person and 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.440 they fall in love. He's ten years younger than Olivera. 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.520 Was probably something like very intense feeling the love at 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.559 first sight, so she decided this way to participate in 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.280 a robbery in a big hotel jewel resort. This was 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:48.240 in the summer of two thousand and five. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.840 Olivera agrees to help Dragon case the jewelry store in 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.640 the luxury hotel. Like many of the female Pink Panthers, 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.640 her role is together intel on their targets, identify them 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:04.880 as merchandise, and assess the security. And like other women panthers, 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.400 she looks the part impeccably. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.720 She visited the store before, pretending to be a wealthy 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.120 customer and being also a very impressive woman. She was 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.640 like a blonde one meter ninety two ninety three resuld, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:24.400 so she didn't have much difficulty in frusuading the staff 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.479 in the junior store to show her the most expensive collections. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.680 At the same time, she was screening the place to 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.080 see how security is like and pass the information to 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:35.080 her associates. 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.920 But after the robbery, oliver and her boyfriend hit a 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.199 stroke of bad block. They're in a routine traffic stock 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.679 when police discover incriminating evidence Dragon had left his cutting 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:47.319 tools in the trunk of their car. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.360 She was arrested in them. She was really a starn. 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.360 You know how the media, the tabloids, they were like 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.880 the Amazon, the basketball. The Amazon was arrested and created 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:58.680 was a big thing. 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.400 So she found herself Jay. 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.440 Although she kept the court of contact of the gang, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.480 she didn't give anue away in the court and she 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:08.719 denied any involvement, but still she. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:09.320 Was in Jane. 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.280 Olivera and Dragon are both sentenced to prison on the 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:19.720 island of Crete. She serves six years, but when she 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.280 and Dragon are released, are they reformed? They or not. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.440 In March twenty twelve, Olivera returns to Athens and teams 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.600 up once again with her boyfriend Dragon. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.600 She decided to come to Athens this participate in a robbery. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.760 And this actually wasn't the best. 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:42.600 Timing this particular moment they chose from the robbery because 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:44.360 it was really very strange. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.440 There was another robbery taking place at the same time. 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.680 Next stor another robbery taking place next door at the 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.880 exact same time. It truly is terrible luck. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.720 So the police were there and shooting starts, which is 0:13:58.800 --> 0:13:59.920 not usually in Greece. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.120 It's highly useful. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.600 The Pink Panthers plan their heis carefully. They make every 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.400 effort to avoid anyone being heard. But this is something 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.880 no one could plan for. Olivera's boyfriend, Dragon is shot 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:15.079 three times. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.520 So her boyfriend was wounded very very seriously, and he 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.280 end it's up in the hospital and he was in 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:23.680 a coma for forty days. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.080 Olivera manages to escape, but she is beside herself over Dragon. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.040 If there was ever a time to get out, it 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:33.880 is now. But she can't. 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.320 She apparently quite emotional. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.400 She couldn't leave him here like that, so she went 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.280 back into the house they used, and the police raided 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.040 the house and they found her in there, along with 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.040 a lot of incriminating the evidence from its robberies. 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:53.120 The police find masks, wigs, weapons, and fake identity documents. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.840 Olivera is arrested and lands back in a Greek jail, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:02.560 this time in the infamous Athens prison called Corrida Los. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:13.000 Olivera loves to tell stories of her time inside Corrida Loss. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.880 She claims that one cell made told her she had 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.840 killed her husband and his mistress then serve them in 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.360 a pie to the husband's parents, something out of a 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.880 Greek myth. But Olivera is unfazed by her experience there, 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.440 as she tells it, for many paying panthers, prison is 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.160 sort of finishing school. To be truly respected, you have 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.480 to do at least one stretch. Again, this is her 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.480 son Nicholas translating. 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.640 Every criminal believe in that you are so smart that 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.200 there is no way for you to get into the prison. 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.760 And you are thinking like that until your first time 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.000 go to the prison, and then you learn that you 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.200 were just an amateur and you didn't know nothing about 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:56.680 the crime. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.400 Prison, it turns out, is a crucial aspect of a 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:00.600 panther's credibility. 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.280 I don't know anyone in the pink painters that has 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.640 not a serious prison sentence behind his back. Those who 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.920 say that they are so smart, they were pin ventors 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.080 and they never went to prison, that's all the lies. 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:15.360 That's not a true story. 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.920 So destiny of one good ping ventor is a lot 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.880 of money, a lot of fast money, prison one hundred 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.200 percent for sure. After the prison, again fast money, and again. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:32.280 Prison Olivera makes good use of her time at Carida Loss, 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.520 but she doesn't plan to stay long. Journalistic spinup a 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:37.040 bar your you. 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.120 She started painting in prison, and she discovered she was 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:41.920 quite good to sea. 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:46.160 Olivera Tchirkouture's artistic talent is more than a hobby. It 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.720 becomes part of her plan to escape. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.880 So she had been thinking to escape since day one. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.080 The prison officer was persuaded to let your. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.840 Paint the prison governor's office while the governor was away, 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.920 and this was golden opportunity because the office was fifteen 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.679 meters from Colorida Lost prison entrance, that is, fifteen meters 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:08.360 from freedom. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.600 As you might expect, Olivera has worked through the logistics 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:13.400 carefully and she's patient. 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.639 So since started painting endless hours and waiting for the 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.760 right moment, she had notified the Pink panther gun members 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:23.840 to come to others and rent an apartment. 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.920 Olivera manages to get permission to buy art supplies from 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.680 outside the present and have them delivered. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.760 And of course this was part of the plan. 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.560 So her collaborators were strolling for weeks on ends outside 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.200 the prison walls, and the day comes Olivera is now 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.560 in the prison governor's office, so she gives a signal 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.600 with her mobile phone, which she had managed to smuggle 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.560 into the prison, and when the gate opened, her cellian 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.520 associate enters holding a bag with art supplies, and everything 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.080 happened within seconds. The man hit the prison officer on 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.199 the head, and Olivera just walked out of prison and 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.720 got on a motorbike that was waiting outside. 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.919 After the escape, Olivera heads on foot to the mountains 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:12.640 of Macedonia. A young accomplice is waiting there near the border. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.840 He shows her the route across the mountainous terrain. It's 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.040 over one hundred and fifty miles. Olivera tapes her wrists 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.120 and ankles as she would for a pro basketball game, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.280 and she makes the climb. She's been given a map, 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.040 some money, and has set up meetings with contacts along 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.679 the route to charge her phone and get more supplies. 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.359 When she reaches the Serbian border, she finds a taxi 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.439 to drive her the last few miles to Belgrade. The 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:50.040 Greek press loved this story. Pink panther female prisoner vanishes 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.520 into thin air, exclaimed one headline. They called her a 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.320 spider lady and referred to her as an Amazon It 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.359 made for terrific copy. For Oliver, it's a point of 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:02.639 pride again. 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.359 Her son translates, I'm the first and only woman ever 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.200 escaped from the prison in Europe. 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.280 But like every true team player, she shares the credit 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:11.760 for the win. 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.600 That's why I escaped from the prison. That's why I 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.359 made it. I was smarked by the time to make 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.760 a good plan for how to escape. But with all 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.240 those people who are ready to give the life for you, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.000 you cannot escape from the prison. 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.600 But one of the craziest things about Oliver's story is 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.800 the fact that just a few months after escaping prison 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:39.160 and walking back to Serbia, she returns for another job 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:40.560 in Athens. 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.119 After I escaped. Three months later, I came back to 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.280 the same city and we did the armed robbery of 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.040 the jewelers store. Four days after we did it, well, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:51.840 they arrest me. 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.320 Police raide Oliver's rented safehouse and find her with sixty 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:57.960 five pounds of gold. 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:03.960 Oh I was convicted organizer of the criminal gang named 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:04.680 Pink Panthers. 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.920 This time, Oliver is sentenced to thirty two years on 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.160 one hundred and sixteen charges of aggravated theft and three 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:18.000 armed robberies. The authorities value the looted goods at more 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:23.159 than five hundred million dollars. Back in prison again, she 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.320 is deprived of her art supplies naturally, so instead she 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:32.000 turns to creative writing. She chronicles her criminal exploits in 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.280 a kind of diary, but on appeal many of the 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.560 charges against her are actually dismissed and her sentence is commuted. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.080 After five years, she's again out of prison, this time 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.080 banned from returning to Greece. 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.280 I am free from the prison since twenty seventeen, so 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.600 I decided to change my life. I serve my prison sentences, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.119 so I don't own anything to anyone. Any country is 0:20:58.160 --> 0:20:58.960 not looking for me. 0:20:58.880 --> 0:20:59.679 Anymore, Oliver. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.720 She's done with the life of crime. 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:06.080 To step up out of the crime, it's really really hard. 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.400 You need a lot of money to continue the life 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.280 that you get used to by doing that crime stuff. 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.080 And so she's turned the story of her criminal past 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:19.040 into a new enterprise. She has speaking engagements, she's a 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.960 YouTube star. And remember that prison diary she kept, She's 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:27.600 turned it into three books. They're called I Pink Panther, 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.760 I Pink Panther two and I Pink Panther three all 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.080 have sold quite well in the former Yugoslavia. There's even 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.160 a TV series based on her books that's being developed 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:43.240 in Serbia. Olivera told the Greek journalist that she hopes 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.040 Uma Thurman will play her in the Hollywood version. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.040 I'm representing not just the crime story. I'm representing my 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.520 life and my character, and my character is the character 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:54.119 of the winner. 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:05.040 Oliveri. Tcherkovich says that prison is a necessary part of 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.760 the criminal education of any pig Panther, but there is 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:12.000 a limit to how much time behind bars a panther 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:16.959 is willing to spend, and as Oliveri's story shows, a 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:21.000 prison break is not that different from a heist. Both 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:25.080 involved tight security and armed guards. To pull either of 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:29.800 them off, you need careful planning, precision, and ingenuity, and 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.080 Oliveri is not the only Panther to stage an escape 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.440 that has all the flare and theatrics of one of 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.760 their heists. Over the years, the Panthers carried out prison 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:45.840 breaks all across Europe. In two thousand and nine, a 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.600 Panther from Bosnia was arrested after robbing a jewelry store 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.639 in Switzerland and given a six year sentence, but he 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.639 decided he would rather not stay the full time, and 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.480 in twenty thirteen he was sprung from his Swiss prison 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:05.040 by his fellow Panthers. The story was a sensation, like 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.240 in this report from ABC News, the media just could 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:09.320 not get enough of it. 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.960 Today, two vehicles crashed through the perimeter, pushed through layers 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:16.280 of barbed wire, got ladders up over the last of 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.360