WEBVTT - Diamonds Are a Serb's Best Friend: The Pink Panthers 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.960 Zarin Elizabeth, What's up? How you doing girl? 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:08.440 I'm good. Hey listen. 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.440 You know it's ridiculous, yes, and not the feather bow 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.000 I'm wearing. But I wanted to tell you this. In 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.799 two thousand and four, there was a cookbook by this dude, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.919 Brian D. Price, that was published, right, and Price was 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.040 a former Texas prison inmate, and he was a prison 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.360 chef and he prepared many of the last meals at 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.639 the prison where he was locked up. So he decided 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.920 to share his collection of last meal recipes and he 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.239 called his cookbook Meals to Die For. Oh God, right, yeah, right, 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.960 And I learned apparently this is common. There are a 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.320 lot of cookbooks and photo essays and academic journals about 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.360 last meals. Like there was one paper publishing twenty twelve 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.160 in the journal Appetite. It was all about death row nutrition. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.040 And they analyzed two hundred and forty seven last meals 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.360 and they found the average meal came in at about 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.520 twenty seven hundred calories. There were four requests from Texas 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:55.960 and Oklahoma that all topped seven thousand calories. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.680 No surprise, seven twenty seven hundreds more than an. 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.440 That's like a full day's meal, right, we're eating. Yeah, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:04.360 and then seventy percent of the prisoners they asked for 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.600 fried foods, Okay, mostly because they're being killed in the South, right. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.480 Sixteen percent ordered Coca Cola with their last meal. And 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:12.400 of the two hundred and forty seven inmates, how many 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.080 wanted diet coke Elizabeth zero three three? 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:15.520 Yeah. 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:17.760 But the most ridiculous part of all this last meals 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.880 that I looked up to was I found just how 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.319 petty this lone star state can be. In twenty eleven, 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.840 Texas stopped offering condemned inmates a last meal. And why 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.479 would Texas choose to do that? Because of one man, 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.800 just one man, Lauris Russell Brewer. He ordered a huge meal, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.320 two chicken, fried steaks, a pound of barbecue, and right, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.880 so he decides not to eat any of it and 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:41.959 he's just like, throw me in the chair and he 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.120 let the meal go cold. That pissed off this Texas 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.000 state so much they decided the whole state of Texas like, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.600 we're not letting good barbecue go to waste again. No 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.720 more last meals? Were anybody ridiculous? 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.800 What that is ridiculous, completely ridiculous Texas. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:01:58.680 Right. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.120 I don't know what else is ridiculous. I do an 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.880 eight hundred member heist gang. 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:04.680 Wait what. 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.560 This is ridiculous? Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.400 and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.639 one hundred percent ridiculous. Who we I love a good 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.840 heist there, Yeah, you do who. I've talked about heist 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.120 teams before, like Hatton Gardens, Cut, Lloyd's of London one. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:46.079 Another good crew. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:47.120 The Great Train. 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.800 Robert the Governor was on both of those, right, Yeah, 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:51.280 the Great Train Robbie, not the Good. 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:52.280 Crew at Pierre Hotel. 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:53.840 Yeah, you got a lot of cruise. 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.440 Those heist teams were maybe like six to ten people. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.760 I think that's a lot because like, the more you have, 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.160 the more likely it is that someone's going to talk. 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:03.840 Yeah, and also you don't want that whole clown car 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:05.560 effect trying to pile out. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.960 And we've talked about the cinematic nature of crimes too. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.079 The criminals they like to emulate movies about really spectacular 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:15.960 heightst I love that heat is a. 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.160 Huge, one big calling card in the crime world. Apparently, 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.080 point break another good one for me. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:26.480 For me, like the stylistic ones, and now the Pink Panther. 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:28.960 Wait the Clusa. 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.560 Path You've seen the pink Have you seen Return of 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:33.920 the Pink p I have seen them. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.280 All, starting with Shot in the Dark. I love them. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.760 Just like a recap The Pink Panther. Pink Panther is 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.640 a nineteen sixty four comedy classic about a bumbling French 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.560 detective named Cluso he tries to stop a diamond thief. 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.960 The pink panther in the film was a gymnast played 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.080 by Julie Christie. She is the jewel thief, right, No, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.400 I'm just kidding. The pink panther is the very large 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:00.560 pink diamond in the movie. 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.720 Oh, I thought David Niven. No wait, oh I thought 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.560 he's known as the pink Panther. No, the panther is 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.600 the gem. You're totally right, and Jullie. 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.680 Christy isn't there. In two thousand and three, I got 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:15.160 you so good? 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:15.720 You did? 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.239 In two thousand and three, thieves pulled off an audacious 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:23.440 robbery in London at a store called graph Ah. Okay, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:24.920 it's an elite jewelry store. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:25.760 I'll take your word for it. 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:30.520 Yes. Graph says they sell quote the most fabulous jewels 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.800 in the world. Good for you have to say it. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:38.520 Like that, Oprah saying Oprah to each. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.800 Other Victoria Beckha. They are customers. But also if you 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.040 just say Oprah, you hope that like, you know, cashmere jumpsuit, 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:48.200 superior your house exactly. 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.760 That's just how I asked for thanks, right, Oprah. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:57.360 Oprah. Graph specializes in colored diamonds. They're the ones who 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.400 popularized yellow diamonds, which apparently he used to be considered flawed. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:03.080 Yeah, and then they switched it. 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.560 Now they're like, no, you want like it, We're gonna 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:06.839 like we. 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.560 Put a color on it. Yeah for you. This one 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:09.640 is a chocolate diamond. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.760 Yeah, I like that, don't you. At super post jewelry stores, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.800 they don't make they don't make the security measures overt. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.400 Everything's really subtle and seamless, or so I'm told, I 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.680 don't know what I hear. So on that day in 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:27.279 two thousand and three, a man named Nivoisia Denik. He 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.640 walked into the store, big old serb. 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:31.359 I was just about to ask. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.640 So he was wearing a suit, and he was also 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.120 wearing a big elvis wig as you do, big old 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.120 pompadoor sitting a skew on the top of his head. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.840 According to the New Yorker security thought, quote, he was 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.800 a rock star in disguise or a wealthy man suffering 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.480 from a disease. That not the greatest way to be described. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:53.880 They're like, what does he look like? Well, I don't know. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.120 He's either a rockstar in disguise or a rich guy 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:57.200 with a disease. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:58.600 Only one of two choices. And this one. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.800 Scotland yard detective described his wig as quote, it looked 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.240 like a car was lying on his head. It's like, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.000 what okay, okay, But his suit was immaculate. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.120 So this explains a lot about British engineering. If you 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:13.279 take a wig in a car. 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.000 I'm just saying, well, and like you realize that he 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.760 looks the part with the with the suit as long 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.000 as it got that. Like I feel like your suit, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.080 like your clothing or your haircut can convey wealth. Yes, 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.440 like rich people have like really good haircuts. 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.479 Yeah, it always it always looks good, usually shoes and 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.680 haircuts on men, and then for women it's the accessories 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:34.560 and the hair haircuts. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.280 Yeah, so this guy he walks in he wants to 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.400 see a twelve carrot diamond ring and the clerk presents 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:40.760 it to him. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:41.680 It's a long daddy. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.160 It costs four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Yeah, that's 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.200 a big that's a total bigin he's like, you know what, 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.080 this is too glamorous. Show me something smaller, Like, all right, dude. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.839 So but then he pulls out a gun and he 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:55.360 orders everyone on the floor. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.960 No, I said something smaller. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.839 So another man, Pedrick Vyjosevic, he enters the store and 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.120 he just starts smashing display cases with a hammer. He's 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.160 grabbing jewelry, stuffing it in this bag he has in 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.840 all these two guys they grabbed forty seven pieces worth 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:19.160 twenty three million pounds. That's a lot. That's in today's money. 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.760 That's forty seven and a half million dollars. I'll take it, yeah, 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.240 right in like five minutes down. So then they run 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:30.120 off into like the busy Mayfair streets. A security guard 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.000 managed to tackle Nivoisha and pin him down until the 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.480 cops came. Scotland Yard was immediately on the cap. 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:37.120 Of course. 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.560 They eventually tracked down a man from Montenegro named Milan 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.480 Jovitch as an accomplice to the crime. When they searched 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.520 his flat, one of the detectives saw a jar of 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.960 skin cream in the bathroom. He opened it up, stuck 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.200 his finger in it, took a little taste, stuck his 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.680 finger back. Good stuff, and he felt something and he 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.840 pulled out a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars blue 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.360 diamond ring. Wow, hidden in the cream. 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.320 That's where I had put it. Dude, that's a great call. 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:05.560 Most people wouldn't look there. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.000 In return of the Pink Panther, thieves hit a diamond 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.600 in a jar of face cream. And that's how the 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.240 Pink Panther Gang got its name. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.800 Oh, just because of that one because of. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.440 That one move. Oh so they didn't just find the ring, 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.560 they found blank fake Italian passports, you know, like we 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.040 have blank ones. So apparently Italy was a common pass 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.040 through for criminals from Eastern Europe. Let me give you 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.760 some background, please slowed it on melos of it. 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:32.600 Oh yeah. 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.480 Became president of Serbia in nineteen eighty. 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:36.520 Nine, slow bo big hair. 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:41.199 Yeah huh. This started an intensely criminal era in all 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.800 ways you can imagine, aside from the ethnic cleansing and murder, 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.320 criminal gangs basically ran the government. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:48.960 Yeah. I used to get my Serbian friend Chris all 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:49.839 the hard time about this. 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:55.280 Yep, there you go. There were black market cigarettes, gas, electronics, 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.000 anything you could think of. Much of the smuggling went 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.600 by boat via Italy. In January of nineteen ninety four, 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.680 the Bosnian Wars going on. Serbia had been experiencing hyper inflation, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.840 and that was engineered by Melosovitch. It had been in 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.920 hyperinflation for two years. What was the inflation rate? I 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.400 have no idea three hundred million percent? 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.000 Is that even possible? Just stop counting, right, million? 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:25.720 So this allowed Melosovich to control the Serbian people. They 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.679 had to buy everything on the black market, and that 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.880 was run by the government, which was run by criminals, corruptions, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.839 totally out of control. An entire generation of young men 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.280 had been starved out and exploited by their own government entirely, 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.720 and they had glimpses of what life could be like 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.920 when they see Western Europe. And then they also had 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.880 all this training, either from the government or just from 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.520 life on the street, to be cunning and evasive. So 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.480 when the regime finally collapsed in two thousand and one, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.000 all these young men and women made their way to 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.920 Italy or France looking for a better life, and they 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.560 were very rarely well received. No one wanted them there. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.280 So for these people who'd been raised in poverty and 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:08.080 violence and maybe forced to commit atrocities, they didn't care. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.360 They didn't care about anything. What were laws? What are rules? Oh? 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.640 Yeah care. They're very much existentialists forced into that position. 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.320 Uh huh. And so there's all this wealth for the taking, like, well, 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:18.960 I'm going to take you know, that's what they do. 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.760 So back to Scotland Yard and that graph heist, right, 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.800 the police use Milan's phone records to track him down 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.199 to an apartment in Paris that belonged to Pedrick vy Josevic. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.280 Pedrick was in the wind though, so still the investigation 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.640 pushes on Steve Alexander, a Scotland Yard detective. He met 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.640 up with French detectives who tackled organized crime. These are 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.840 their stories. I don't know if they had juicy booties, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.520 but they had a really rad name, La Brigade dire 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.479 pasim do bed Detism. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:53.040 Wow. 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:54.840 I didn't say that right, but it's the Brigade for 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.640 the Repression of Bandit Tree. The Brigade for the Repression 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:05.320 of band Tree. That's the rpb b RB. It's the BRB, yes, okay. 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.680 So they shared their cases and they realized that a 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.600 similar crew seemed to have committed about twenty robberies just 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.200 like the one at graf And when they looked at 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.600 surveillance footage, it looked like Pedrog had been running heists 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:23.880 in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, Barcelona. Like they're just 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.920 matching him up on all that very much. 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.800 He's the one with the wig, right, the Elvis wig, Yes, Pedrag? 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.200 So no, no, no, that was a different dude. Pedrick 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:37.560 came in after. Oh, he's the smasher. So police finally 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.120 did capture Pedrig as he was driving to Italy from France. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.720 He wouldn't talk, obviously, he wouldn't talk about anything. Eighty 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.000 percent of the jewels from that graph heist were never 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.840 recovered eighty percent and Pedrick not cooperating. But it started 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.960 to look like this wasn't the first heist. Back in 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.400 two thousand and one, Pink Panthers robbed a jewelry store 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:02.000 in the French coastal resort town of beertz Over. Been 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.720 there never been there. I really want to go, though. 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:05.560 There were so many places that we talk about that 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.720 I want to go. Anyway, they were clever. They coated 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.080 a bench across from the shop in wet paint so 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.120 that people wouldn't see and be witnesses. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:14.160 That's really smart. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.840 Yeah, that's kind of like their first big heist. In 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.360 December of two thousand and two, a man strolled into 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.600 the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:22.240 Uh huh. 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.880 He wore a smart suit and carried himself with confidence. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:25.400 Okay. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.080 He perused the various shops in the Grand Canal shops. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.480 He stopped at the Bernard K. Passman jewelry store. 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:34.680 I know what that is, ringing name. 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.040 He went inside and he told the saleswoman that he 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.679 wanted to ask about an item in the window. So 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.120 he guides her by the arm out into the concourse 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.840 to point to a particular piece. As this happens, another 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.839 man entered the star. He's wearing a beret, which isn't 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:54.520 like particularly inconspicuous in Las Vegas. He asked another sales 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.440 associate in the store to show him some pieces in 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.200 the case. Then two more men came in and they 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.880 stood next to this really large display case. They're admiring 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.960 an impressive piece of jewelry. Since the two saleswomen were engaged, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.280 there was no one to help these two new guys 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:11.360 and no one to keep an eye on what they 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.559 were doing. So just a couple of minutes go by. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.840 Then the two men left. Then the bray guye splits. Finally, 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.000 suave guy in the suit he leaves stores empty. You 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.760 know what else was empty? The case that contained the 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.640 million dollar millennium necklace. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.040 Oh how did they get into the case so quickly? 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:30.200 They just fiddled with it? 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:31.600 Yeah, yeah, that's impressive. 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:37.240 This the millennium necklace was called a wearrible sculpture. Oh platinum, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.240 black coral, two thousand diamonds. Oh wow, right, and it's 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.200 just in there in this case. And so they wiggle 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.520 it opens, putting their pants and walk off thanks to 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.840 this distraction technique that they used, you know, these amorphously 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.760 European accented fellas. It's gone. So meanwhile, after the graft job, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.040 the robberies continue. In two thousand and four, the Pink 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:04.240 Panthers took token. You none of the four person crew there. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.600 There's two Serbian men. One Serbian woman and a Scottish 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.040 woman who'd been pinched for robbery and Italy. Once none 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.320 of them spoke Japanese, one of the men headed into 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:20.000 lesupa diamont Couture des Machi in the Ginza district district, Yeah, 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.280 jewelry store. So he asked to go up to the 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.560 third floor to see a particular famous necklace that they had. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.600 He even took pictures of it. A couple of days later, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:30.560 the same guy came in again, but this time he 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:32.800 was all loved up with the Serbian lady and they're 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:34.800 looking around and oh, should we get. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:35.040 Something in. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.560 And they bought a necklace and so that kind of establishes, 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.800 you know, credibility. A few days after that, the two 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.160 men return. This time they're ready. They got their wigs on. 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.520 You know, there's nothing better than a wig heist. So 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.800 they got the wigs on. They're swanming around the store. 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.040 They're like going upstairs. They even were like taking pictures 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.080 of the staff, like beautiful gray. Oh really, Oh yeah, 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.560 they're just hamming it up. So one of the men 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.040 distracted a salesman and then like socked him in the 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.080 face and pepper sprayed him. Oh and then the thief 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.000 grabbed that same particular necklace that he'd taken a photo 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.040 of before, and he made a break for it. He 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.000 and his accomplice darted out the front doors, right by 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.560 the Serbian woman and the inexplicable Scott, who were keeping 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.560 watch from a cafe across the street. The men had 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:29.600 stolen the Comtesse de vendome necklace. It had one hundred 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:30.920 and sixteen diamonds in it. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:32.080 Who's going to count? 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:33.680 How much do you think this thing was worth? 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.320 I'm forty million? 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:37.680 Yeah, thirty three million dollars. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:42.040 I was kidding thirty to throw a darted number. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.400 This is so much money. I can't get my head around. 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:45.760 Uh. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.080 It was the greatest robbery in the history of Japan. 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:55.000 It's the Tokyo Police. They conducted an exhaustive and precise investigation. 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.200 They made headway that the European forces hadn't been able 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.800 to accomplish, but it wasn't enough, and in the end 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 they they wound up not knowing more than they started with. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:05.280 So they got away. 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.160 Yeah, totally got away. Let's take a break and we 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:28.680 come back. I'll tell you more about this incredible crime spree. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.560 Welcome Zarin Elizabeth, the Pink Panther Gang. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.840 Yes, with the cream and the Diamond game and the 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.400 Pallises can't believe you got me on. 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.640 So the Pink Panther Gang wasn't just one outfit. It 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.760 was a network of cruise. Some law enforcement estimates put 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.880 it as eight hundred strong how is it? And others 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.240 say that there's a core group that's maybe like sixty 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:57.760 or so people. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:57.960 Ye. 0:16:58.000 --> 0:16:59.680 Do I think they're exaggerating the numbers to make them 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:00.560 sound like we need more fun. 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:02.920 I don't think so though, when you hear the number 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.920 of rests. So there are both men and women who 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.800 are part of this organization. The women have to be gorgeous, 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:10.960 that's their requirement. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.560 Look like an Eastern European rule of christ. 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.520 Is And they're the ones who have to stake out 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.800 the targets. They get access and they study the store. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.880 Okay, these kind of like as a distractionary tactic too. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.239 Yeah, because no one's you know, everyone's going to pay 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.280 attention to this beautiful woman, but not in the way 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.199 that they want to be. So they work with an 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.840 artist after they've been in a store, and the artist 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.480 makes a rendering of the place based on her description, 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.399 so she has to be super precise, has to have 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:37.439 an excellent memory, and. 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.240 Then I bet their accounting steps and all that stuff. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.800 Everything depends on that drawing. There are some cops who 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.040 liken the pink panthers to an octopus, tentacles everywhere, but 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.120 that would imply like a leader ahead, someone calling the shots. 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.960 Opinions differ on this, but no one has had any 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.040 luck figuring out who is controlling this enterprise, if anyone. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.080 Maybe more of alture than an actual. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.480 Well know, A lot of law enforcement kind of likens 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.440 it to Al Qaeda of various cells, and that it's 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.600 very loosely kind of organized. 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.159 Reminds me of the old Hashiitians with the original assassins, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.480 like of the man in the Mountain, Hassani Sabbah. He'd 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.280 like send people out into Europe to do stuff. Yeah, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.240 and it's like nobody could ever find anything on them 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:22.560 because they were so they wouldn't talk. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.680 And that's exactly it. None of these people ever talked. 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.359 Some said there's no top person or group giving orders. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.880 Others say it's like a one particular Eastern European crime family. 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.360 But they're connected to andre Get the Italian Southern crime. 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.360 Well, that's exactly it. A lot of people think they're 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.480 connected to the Italian mafia because, after all, top Italian 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.680 mafia figures wanted by the Italian government are living out 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.920 in the open in Montene exactly. So each crew has 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.120 a transporter, someone not there at the heist, and that 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.000 person gets the diamonds across borders, generally headed to Antwerp 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:56.760 or Israel. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:57.800 Uh huh, totally. 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.000 They know where they're taking the goods. The Pink Panthers 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.480 make about fifteen percent value of the jewelry. They're given 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:05.520 a fifteen percent cut. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.200 Okay, so that's their Essentially their market is fifty percent 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:09.160 on top of whatever they. 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.480 Okay, the courier takes five percent, and the big dog 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.800 is the fence. That's the guy who quote unquote legalizes 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.520 the gems, he repurposes them, puts them back in the market. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.600 He gets about thirty to forty percent cut. 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.880 They're most likely a jeweler in either Antwerper. 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.520 Israel, and a lot of times the guys higher up 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:33.280 in the chain are former paramilitary under Melosovich. Oh of course, yeah, 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:37.800 they're murderers, yes, But however, the Pink panthers are never violent. 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:39.880 Most of the time. When they have guns, the guns 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:41.879 are fake and they've never killed anyone. 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.239 They sound more like the crimes of Tito's Partisans when 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.040 yugoslav when Serbia was Yugoslavia and Tito was fighting against 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.200 first the Nazis and then like you know, they would 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.480 do a lot of that type of banditree, right, bandit 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:53.880 tree is very much in the idea, and it. 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.119 Is in the culture where if you go in all 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:57.840 these different articles that I read, if you go and 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.360 you talk to people there, you know, there's a certain 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.399 amount of pride to it, like, yeah, steal their stuff 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.800