Brazen 'Pink Panther' Heists Stir Ire, Admiration of Cops

European thieves renowned for suave, meticulous banditry

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 14, 2008 12:28 PM CST

(Newser) – A sophisticated cadre of bandits have deserted Serbian battlefields to invade the globe's finest boutiques, the New York Times reports, daringly swiping millions worth of jewels from luxury stores. Interpol has dubbed the crooks—thought to be about 200 ex-soldiers and their relatives from the former Yugoslavia—the Serbian Pink Panthers. “The modus was always the same,” says one Monaco officer.

“Very fast, very well-organized with a plurality of perpetrators, and violent, too.” This month in Paris, thieves dressed in drag snatched a cool $105 million in emeralds, rubies, and diamonds in mere minutes. In Biarritz, others craftily painted a bench to deter pedestrians from loitering in front of a nearby target. Invoking a line from their movie namesake, investigators admire the Panthers’ “unique flair for the dramatic.”

[Images (3)]

[Videos (3)]

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Authorities blame the Pink Panthers for scooping up jewels worth more than $132 million in bold robberies in Dubai, Switzerland, Japan, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Monaco. (Shutter Stock)

Authorities believe meticulous planning, swift execution and creative style are calling cards of a loose global network of battle-hardened, ex-soldiers and their relatives from the former Yugoslavia. (Shutter Stock)

Armed robbers, some dressed in drag, made off Dec. 4, 2008, with $100 million in loot from a lightning-fast jewelry store theft in Paris. Police called it one of France's costliest jewel heists. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

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The official trailer of "Pink Panther" starring Steve Martin. (WWWGAMASITETK)

Jewel thieves pull off one of the largest heists in Paris' history. (CNN Video)

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Permit me to say something. It’s not necessary to be an idiot to act like a fool. - Lawyer for alleged Pink Panther, on why his client turned his cunning to crime

He committed robberies with a minimum of violence. I find him extremely sweet, extremely polite, and nice. - Lawyer for convicted Pink Panther

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Brazen 'Pink Panther' Heists Stir Ire, Admiration of Cops