#thebelgradephantom

[burntoutclutch]

The Belgrade Phantom: Yugoslavia’s Ghost 911.

In the 1979, during Yugoslavia’s Socialist Dictatorship, a man by the name of Vladimir Vasiljevic gained notoriety for stealing cars. He earned the nicknames “Vlada Opel” for his love of stealing Opels and “Vlada Kljuc” which roughly translates to “Vlad the key” for his ability to hotwire almost any car.

At one point in his boosting career, Vlad came across a white Porsche 911 Targa owned by Serbian tennis player Ivko Plecevic, a car that was a particularly rare sight in Yugoslavia. Being an almost professional car thief, Vlad was up for the challenge of stealing the 911.

It’s unknown how long he actually had the car days but for about a week to 10 days, Vlad would take out this phantom 911 after 10pm and rip through the city streets. Local police gave him the name of the Belgrade Phantom because he would taunt and tease them in chases until late hours of the night before disappearing. He would call in to local radio stations and tell people where to stand for the best view of his driving “performance.”

The fun and games all ended when police setup a trap using empty busses that Vlad ultimately crashed in to. Even after the crash it wasn’t until 2 days later that police caught him after an anonymous tip was called in. Hardly any images or video exist of this phantom except for his final joyride and crash which ran in the newspaper. I’m 2009 a documentary film was made and many of the stories were recreated.