The Pink Panthers

There’s been a group of criminals that fog through the way a web of heists and robberies that have been ongoing for 25 years, most recently in 2018. The Pink Panther network of jewel thieves.
In May of 2003, the flagship store of luxury jewelry retailer graph in London was serving an eccentrically dressed customer named Nebojsa Denic though his suit and umbrella may not have appeared unusual. His awkward pompadour wig stood out as he examined a 12-carat ring valued at $450,000. The ring was apparently not quite what Denic was looking for. Remarking that it was too glamorous.
Before a more subtle piece could be offered. Denic whipped out a chrome-plated three 57 Magnum and told everyone to get on the floor at the same time, a Montenegrin man in his late twenties named Predrag Vujosevic entered the store and used a hammer to smash, open display cases, and remove 47 pieces of diamond jewelry.
Now with 23 million pounds of jewelry, the two men fled the scene. Simon Stearman, a security guard gave chase and managed to subdue Denic by sitting on him. Stearman reportedly removed Denic's wig and began berating him for it. Telling the thief how dumb he looked.
Within days, Scotland yard identified another accomplice in charge of the burglar's travel arrangements. One Milan Jovetic. Detectives obtained a warrant to search the apartment where Jovetic was staying with his girlfriend Anna Stankovic.
The search turned up fake Italian passports with no names or photos and a particular jar of face cream. In the cream was a blue diamond ring worth upwards of three-quarters of a million dollars. The press referred to the robbers as the Pink Panthers. As a similar hiding spot was used in the 1975 comedy, "The return of the Pink Panther".
While the blue ring had been found more than 22 million pounds of jewelry were still missing along with Vujosevic. Scotland yard detective Steve Alexander tracked phone records to an apartment in Paris thought to be Vujosevic's home. But Vujosevic was gone. While in Paris, Alexander met up with a special police unit called the Brigade for the Repression of Banditry to compare notes.
It turned out the graph robbery in London wasn't the first time Vujosevic was suspected of robbing a jewelry store.
In fact, it wasn't even the first graph store he'd targeted. Vujosevic was wanted for robbing a graph store in Amsterdam. It Castiglione in Paris as well as jewelers in Frankfurt, Geneva, and Barcelona.
In 2005, Vujosevic was caught trying to cross into France from Italy via car.
When Alexander traveled to Paris to question Vujosevic however, he refused to talk about the London robbery. According to his mother, Vujosevic was sentenced to nine years in prison, but the missing diamonds were nowhere to be found. While the London graph heist was the crime that gave the Pink Panthers, their name, it was far from the only one. And in no way, encompassing the full roster of the group.
According to Jeweler Magazine, as of 2019, they'd stolen nearly $1 billion worth of goods across 35 countries. Let's look at a small sampling of their work. In 2001, a group robbed a jewelry store in the coastal town of Biarritz France. Speaking of their thoroughness in planning jobs to deter any possible witnesses prior to the heist, the men painted a bench outside the store. So no one would happen to sit there with a front-row seat of the heist. In 2002, a group stole the Millennium necklace worth $1 million from the Nevada casino in Las Vegas.
In 2003, another group of Panthers made off with $14 million of Jewels from Chaupar in Paris.
In March 2004, two Serbian men in wigs stole the Comtesse de Vendome necklace, which featured a 125-carat diamond from a store in Tokyo.
In Saint Tropez in 2005, a group of Panthers in wigs and flower print shirts robbed a jewelry store and escaped via a waiting speed boat.
Also in 2005, a group in Amsterdam dressed as airport workers transferred 75 million euros of jewelry to a waiting plane.
In 2007, the Pink Panthers robbed the Harry Winston boutique in Paris with guns. The next year they robbed the same store dressed as women. Combined the two thefts resulted in 76 million pounds of lost jewelry.
While jewelry has been a specialty of the Pink Panthers, it is not the only luxury item they've targeted.
In 2008, the group pulled off the largest art heist in European history. Stealing a Monet, a Van Gogh, a Gauguin, and a Saison. In total, valued at over 145 million from a gallery in Zurich with so many big-money heists to choose from.
Some theorize the collective's most infamous robbery took place in 2016. Stealing an estimated $5.6 million worth of jewelry in Paris from Kimberly Kardashian, including her 20-carat diamond engagement ring from Kanye West.
I say that it's only theorized that the Pink Panther held up Kim Kardashians because frankly, despite their long list of crimes of which we've only discussed a few, not much is known about the group; who their leaders are, where they take the jewels, how they've organized, even how many people are in the group are all unknown.
There's not much, confirmed information about the group, who their leaders were, or if they even had any leaders. This is one criminal group that investigators can't figure out.