The name Pink Panthers conjures up images of an inept inspector and a suave Peter Sellers and this time the meaning behind the nickname is no different: diamond thievery.
It all started seven years ago with a jar of face cream. Milan Jovetic was part of the group that robbed the Graff store on New Bond Street, London of $30 million worth of diamonds. The Scotland Yard found a $1 million diamond ring hidden in his girlfriend's face-cream jar, the same hiding place used by the thief in the 1963 movie The Pink Panther.
British newspapers called them The Pink Panthers , as the Interpol went after more robberies.
Jovetic only said that he was paid with the diamond ring while he was helping to arrange logistics for the group. He served four years of a 5 1/2 year sentence in prison. Now at only 30 years old, he's back in Cetinje, Montenegro, a small town of about 15,000 in a small Balkan country.
He's become something of a celebrity.
When asked about the heists by an Associated Press reporter, Jovetic wouldn't talk.
The Pink Panthers have been behind 150 robberies since the late 1990s, the Interpol says, but they don't connect the group to every jewelry robbery or diamond heist because it only makes them look more spectacular to the rest of the country. The rumor is that they are like Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor but there is very little evidence of this in the tiny country.
While there is a central group of about 40 people, 25 arrests have been made and 400 people are being questioned as members or helpers.