Uh, dude... that's like a Croatian national security state secret kind of thing you're joking about here... You might wanna be extra careful if you see anyone with a Nokia (Nokitel) phone anywhere near you in the future... 😬
i was actually thinking the exact same thing. i hope netflix or some other streamer picks up the idea and runs with it, because im pretty sure it would be a fascinating story...
There where more familys like this one in the 90s, this one went public beacouse Mirko was lousy salesman, geat gunsmith and lousy salesman. His choice of sale partners made him famous and convict.
I love how he'd make illegal firearms but still changed the name on the phone. Copyright infringement is more dangerous that illegal arms manufacture. 😂😂😂
My guess is it's not so much that as that he didn't think he could make it look exactly like a Nokia. They were of course extremely common, and if you saw a phone that looked a little off and said NOKITEL, you'd go "oh, okay, it's a knock-off." If the branding was right but the buttons were wrong, though, you might wonder.
@@trioptimum9027 You also need a good brand name for your original product and this is perfect because even if conversation was intercpeted by someone this someone would think they are talking about normal phone.
This opening skit was necessary and the cheesiness level was perfect. It was like pieces clicking into place. No universe with a FW episode on the phone gun should lack the phone skit. Beautiful
I somehow managed to completely forget what I'd clicked on and honestly thought the video was going to be about the pistol until I heard the phone ringing
Vugrek is from Zagorje County, and they have a tradition of making flintlocks and use them as "firework" (TH-cam: Vuzem i kubure). That tradition is older than America. Combine that with their natural passion for metals, and traditionally high level of technical culture and this is no longer unusual. When I lived in Slovenia, I had 3 neighbors who were making stuff from metal, anything you could imagine. Intricate ashtray? Sure! Adapter for camera lens? Easy! Custom made holder for a microscope? It will cost a beer. Too bad that their talent, passion and precision remained unrecognized by the manufacturers.
It seems like in a lot of eastern and northern Europe countries, it's almost standard to have a small workshop for yourself, or at least know several people who do. I've been all over, and everyone I've stayed with has had a DIY workshop on their property.
less and less so, but yeah. alot of us had shops. thats from comunism, you could not just go and buy stuff, but you can buy tools and materials, and make stuff yourself, or a factory needs weeks to make a parts, but you and your neibhour with a lathe get it done in a day... @@tziirkq
@@tziirkqunfortunately as of late not s much people in Croatia do, because our scumbag politicians will do anything to destroy a small business owner.
There are so many of these, usually commissioned by spy agencies. The infamous glove gun from WW2, the umbrella that shoots poisonous titanium balls so small they can barely be detected, the suppository gun, the lipstick gun, the pipe gun, etc.
@@Salty_BallsThat would be quite dangerous. You are getting mugged and when you pull out your gun it turns out to be a phone. Good thing you still have your phone to shoot the mugger with.
The US prison systems were VERY concerned about this making its way inside. Despite the fact that cellphones were already strictly banned in most states.
"Phone gun" Y'know, if it weren't for the fact that it's an actual thing as shown here, I'd have thought this was some James Bond Q-manufactured insanity that only works on novel/movie logic.
Covert weapons have been a thing for a long time. Go back a bit and you'll find ones which are disguised as pens, cigar tubes, walking sticks, umbrellas etc
Can we just stop and appreciate the fact that this man travels all over the world and gets a hold of a ton of extremely rare firearms and makes detailed videos then uploads them for free for all of us to enjoy.
"Why he chose the wrong side of the law" Well,back in 90's(not just in Croatia,but the rest of ex-Yu countries as well) you either chose a wrong side of the law or you were poor
id say that held true for the whole post-soviet space. Overwhelming chaos and the emergence of 'free' market created the perfect opportunity for the organised (and not so) crime to pop up
@@Raspredval1337 oh absolutely, when Poland went into free market after we kicked the Russians, there was a huge influx of gangsters putting up businesses to legitimise their proceedings.
Which supports my theory that the civil war in the former Yugoslavia was financed by organized crime. Even with the large Croatian and Serbian diasporas in Vancouver - hint: they have their own separate churches - they still needed serious money to finance the war.@@wojciechbieniek4029 If you read the book "Whistleblower" or see the movie by the same name, you will understand how a UN contract cop from the American mid-west exposed trafficing in drugs and sex slaves across battle-lines in the former Yugoslavia. In one case, she watched a UN-labelled ambulance move sex slaves from Serbian to Croatian territory. This is just a continuation of the centuries-old trade along the ancient Silk Roads connecting China, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. with Western Europe..
There’s a great Russian movie about this, called Брат (Brother). Recommended watch for anyone who wants to understand what life was like for the ordinary person after the fall of communism.
Why wouldn't you? Talent for hire. Knows differen market and their interest. Why not let him be creative and decide to produce something nice and legit & it with other "elements". ^^ @@ohredhk
Ironically, if everyone was walking around with these then people would be safer because the criminals would be worried that the other guy would have one too
I feel old, that is not something I ever expected to be experiencing from a Forgotten Weapons video since I have no real exposure to firearms in real life but I can remember old style mobile phones like this from my childhood; in fact I can feel how the rubber used in the buttons and casing feels like in my hand, my father had a phone pouch/cover just like the one seen here in the late 90's, I can even remember the smell of it in my hands.
In a way I can understand that decision. But not to avoid a lawsuit with Nokia, but as a way to brand his product. If anyone get a close enough look to notice the off brand name it's highly likely they will be holding it and then they are almost bound to discover that it's not a cellphone. Going from there to deducing that it's a gun is just a few seconds away. However if those in the "business" learn that a NokiTel is a hidden gun, then you can start building brand recognition. Tell someone at a party that they should get a NokiTel and those uninitiated around you won't know what you're talking about. They might think it's some kind of phone, but they certainly won't be thinking gun. Meanwhile those looking for something like that will most likely have heard of it...
I have a strong feeling, that there is a possibility that somewhere in the Balkans area someone watches this video with a bit of a knowing and secretive smile under his mustache, reminiscing his younger, wild years.
Much more dangerous the Nokia. The sturdiness of Nokia phones is beyond legendary. (Real history here): While building one of the Madrid metro extensions one of the tunnel boring machines excavated one full Nokia phone out of a concrete slurry wall. The personnel at the machine halted the work maybe thinking that the next thing to appear through the conveyor belt was the phone owner's corpse (and in a worse shape than the phone as it should have been industrially chopped by the TBM cutters). Fortunately there was no corpse, the phone belonged to one of the workers which fell from his pocket while pouring concrete into the slurry wall.
If i remember correctly around his second bust police also found anti aircraft cannon as fully assembled prototype. You got to admire his commitment, but also his lack of style, he could open genuine gunsmiths shop and work what he likes. Maybe do one or two of these but sell it by untracable paths.
Wow that's pretty damn amazing. You can hear the quality in that piece with the firm clicks, strong cocking spring and the well machined slide to separate the 2 halves for loading. That would be an impressive and formidable gun at close range. I would not want to get a couple of well placed .22s from something I'd never guess was a firearm. Very...very cool!
.22 (short even) often with a silencer was the choice of Mafia hitmen. Pop to the head and into their car trunk. About 300, same MO around Boston over the years
@@drxym I've accidentally been on a few international flights with a blade. It's a 'Utilikey', a small multitool that folds up into a key shape, so unless you look carefully, it just looks like another key on your keyring. I really need to remember to take it off next time I fly, I don't want to have to explain to my boss why I couldn't make a business trip...
@@Killbayne Liquids were banned on hand language because of a bomb plot in 2006 using liquid explosives. Footwear has checked since 2001 when a guy try to bring exploding shoes onto a plane.
You might have grown up in the smart phone era which is notoriously flimsy Back in the mid-late 90's you could just stick your Nokia 5110 in a sock and probably beat people with it- then still make a call after.
@@robertbrodie5183 What we need is common sense phone control. We have to limit these high capacity contacts lists. 10 numbers is enough for any normal person. And no one needs fully automatic speed dialing. You should have to press each key manually.
@@KaizoeAzurum Who said anything about the origin of words? In your desparate attempt to be a smartass, you only displayed your ignorance (Croatian and English both have PIE roots, by the way)
I also "archived" that vid myself. BTW that video was a masterpiece and the weapon was actually a pipe shotgun. Oh and I don't think YT would have a problem with this one since Ian didn't show us how to make black powder step-by-step or show us the full list of products he bought on Amazon for this project.
In the 00s my next door neighbor let one of her nephews live with her family just after he graduated from HS. Kid had talent. He repaired and modified gang members' guns, including easy stuff like sawing off barrels and making custom grip to replace buttstocks. That got him on the radar and he got raided by the cops. They also found a few burner phones and one on the workbench being rebuilt. He had packed each full of a little box full of powder. Hit the power button and you just set off a small bomb in your hands, nasty stuff. He got buried in charges, state and fed, I never saw him again and my neighbors didn't speak of him anymore.
not definitively traced, but police initially found some weapons they list as "illegal submachine guns" (no pictures) as early as a raid on the Vugrek family household 2006. Their report says that the Vugrek household had a small factory on-site, and declared it as "one of the last illegal firearms factories" in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region. For the next ten years, these guns would be spread over western Europe, with the Dutch making up a decent majority of seizures. It could suggest that arms made after Vugrek's release were made elsewhere, closer to the Netherlands. Could also just be coincidence and the fact that the British channel demands a lot of drug smugglers. in 2012, a Dutch drug smuggler going to Britain was found to have an R9 SMG with a threaded barrel and suppressor. Given this, the weapon was iterative. Perhaps these "better" examples of this weapon were made in another location but I'm thinking it's still in the Vugrek household's region. Some images of this gun look quite rough-quality. Some look acceptably good and that would imply some difference between tools or at least the skill of the gunsmiths, implying they're not all in the same place with the same tools made by the same people. That house, presumably still being in the same region, was raided again in 2015 and confirmed to have many R9 SMGs. Doubtful that they would have relocated all of the factory but still kept multiple illegal automatic weapons at the home. funny thing is they have raided the Vugrek family home multiple times and keep finding homemade guns there, you'd think they'd learn to stop having them in the house at all!
Read a book by Ian Hogg when I was a kid and it featured some zip guns from Northern Ireland. Been fascinated with underground and home made firearms ever since. It’s amazing what some people can engineer.
Ian, My Uncle Wiley used to be a machinist at Texas Instruments here in the Sherman area. Years ago he built a single shot .410 disguised as a Pager. Sadly, he destroyed it after the Feds approached him for making a Suppressor for a friend of his. And he has Alzheimer's now as well. But it would have been cool if he could have shown it to you because it looked like the real thing just like this "Cell Phone" does.
Shortly after invading Bosnia back in '95 with the 1st Armored Division, we got reports of a cell phone gun being found in the AOR and to be on the lookout for them. We also got the same reports in '99 when we invaded Kosovo. These things have been around for a while in the Balkans.
This is a really awesome insight, thank you. Maybe Vugrek copied this idea, or maybe he'd been getting away with it and making money for quite a while.
For the preservation of history, and possibly creating yourself another series of books, is there any way that you could start 3D scanning these historically curious or significant Firearms and creating blueprints for posterity? So that in the event the items are lost to history there would be an accurate design description, blueprint and then a bit of history?
Croatia are friggin amazing people. My Croatian grandma and great grandma could take any ingredients and make a delicious meal. The men can do this stuff. 😅
If there is anything the north balkans do different from the south, its knowing to fear the taxman and international IP lawsuits (unlike the politicians which are just as scummy and corrupt no matter where you go in the backwaters of europe), just as their respective ex rulers in form of Austria and Ottomans.
Can you remember if the pager guns were capable of firing a .380" ACP (only one shot would be needed) and around by April 1999? I do have a specific unsolved incident in mind, but I don't want to go off at half-cock, so I'd better not spell out the one I mean. Yet.
As I remember they were multi barrel .22's but the time frame sounds right. It was some kid making them at home and selling them to execs and probably dealers (The only 2 types who carried pagers). I think it was Chicago but I may be wrong.
@@FunnyHaHa420 Thank you, that is helpful. The other people who carried pagers were doctors, especially _surgeons on call._ There was a suspect for a murder committed in Fulham, London, whom the police failed to seriously investigate. He was a surgeon and hospital chief of staff with a substantial inherited property portfolio, in Texas. He could have afforded whatever the kid was charging, perhaps even for a custom job. He was also had a PPL and was friends with pilots and execs at United Airlines. (Even friendlier with female flight attendants!) I had been thinking about him getting airline staff to sneak his weapon through airports, but if it was a _pager_ and he had a US or even UN passport saying he was a surgeon doing work for the WHO, who might need to travel without a visa, he could have worn it on his belt and walked straight through!
While the museum doesnt have it, iirc it was one of the first things to be changed to a elongated chamber with a retooled kids candy pop cap instead (those do get stuck like a motherfuckerer on the candy tubes, but a bullet should in fact pierce it, after all its noki-tel not the early 2000s nokia).
Mirko Vugrek jr. said that current political party set him up. He was in jail for a year and a half. Mirko and Ivan Vugrek wanted to sell Agram 2000 for 900 DEM, but croatian army officer insisted that price should be 1300 DEM. 100 DEM per weapon would go to that officer, and 300 would go to his superiors. Vugrek family denied his request and that's where troubles began. I'm croatian and that story sounds like a typical Croatian (homeland war) story.
Pozdrav od čoveka koji je živeo svuda. Ta priča je realnost sveta - trećina. Jedna za radnika, jedna za materijal, jedna za posrednike. Na veliku žalost, kod nas je postojala čast i postojao je obraz. Zato se i danas slabo snalazimo. Ako mi ne veruješ, pogledaj koliko u US ima naprofitnih organizacija. Šta misliš, čemu služe?
Never ask “you got games on your phone?” in the Balkans
You could play a combo of spin the bottle and Russian roulette with it.
If you have to play you definitely want it to land on you first as you'll have the best odds.
😅
Plain awesomeness. I could easily see the usefulness in getting close to an enemy.
@@barrymellor2481 close enough to ask for their number ;)
Inside of you are two croatians, one designs turbines. the other designs phone guns.
@@foxtrotunit1269
Yea, but it's okay! Gay or nay, we still love you for who you are anyway 🤣
You design the wind towers, then use the money to make your guns.
What about phone-turbines?
Kinky
It sounds like an adaptation of a Solzhenitsyn quote.
Plot twist: Ivan never went straight. The wind turbines have hidden AA missiles.
Uh, dude... that's like a Croatian national security state secret kind of thing you're joking about here...
You might wanna be extra careful if you see anyone with a Nokia (Nokitel) phone anywhere near you in the future... 😬
Inter Continental Ballistic... Turbine?!?
Wouldn't it be Surface to air Missiles?
@@eobardthawne3333 tbh I meant Anti Aircraft
Continuing the phone theme: SAM-sung.
It’s like the phrase “call an ambulance, but not for me” embodied in a single firearm.
Great Meme🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Great indeed 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
hahahaha thanks for reminding me of that one :D
Shut the comment section down, it won't get better than this.
Why do i feel they can make a breaking bad-like series with the family who made these guns?
i was actually thinking the exact same thing. i hope netflix or some other streamer picks up the idea and runs with it, because im pretty sure it would be a fascinating story...
There where more familys like this one in the 90s, this one went public beacouse Mirko was lousy salesman, geat gunsmith and lousy salesman. His choice of sale partners made him famous and convict.
I imagine the family members are... hard to reach on the phone. 😎
I want to see that!!
IVAN WE NEED TO MAKE GUNS
I love how he'd make illegal firearms but still changed the name on the phone. Copyright infringement is more dangerous that illegal arms manufacture. 😂😂😂
Hey, I'm sure some corporations want it to be that way, at least.
My guess is it's not so much that as that he didn't think he could make it look exactly like a Nokia. They were of course extremely common, and if you saw a phone that looked a little off and said NOKITEL, you'd go "oh, okay, it's a knock-off." If the branding was right but the buttons were wrong, though, you might wonder.
Like drug dealing versus tax fraud.
Even *_the Joker_* doesn’t screw around with the IRS.
i'm thinking they took the plastic shell from a toy-phone
@@trioptimum9027 You also need a good brand name for your original product and this is perfect because even if conversation was intercpeted by someone this someone would think they are talking about normal phone.
At this point Croatian police museum is literally the main content provider of this channel.
Bro Rock Island Armory is literally half of his channel
Don't you dare forget about mysterious fireplace guy. Whoever that guy is he has at least a million in firearms
"Fireplace Guy" isn't a mystery. He's been on the channel, hawking his books.
Modern smartphones producers: our smartphone has 3 cameras!
Croatian criminals: our phone has 4 barrels 😁
Ah ha ha, well said. Hang on, it's a bad signal, bang bang do you get the message now?
the new definition of killer application
@@OP4455OPlet's say he has a stronger argument in the debate
This opening skit was necessary and the cheesiness level was perfect. It was like pieces clicking into place. No universe with a FW episode on the phone gun should lack the phone skit. Beautiful
If he does an obscure hunting gun, maybe we can get a cameo by Chuck Testa.
I somehow managed to completely forget what I'd clicked on and honestly thought the video was going to be about the pistol until I heard the phone ringing
Legal in u.s?
DemoRanch has best intro skits ever
Vugrek is from Zagorje County, and they have a tradition of making flintlocks and use them as "firework" (TH-cam: Vuzem i kubure). That tradition is older than America. Combine that with their natural passion for metals, and traditionally high level of technical culture and this is no longer unusual.
When I lived in Slovenia, I had 3 neighbors who were making stuff from metal, anything you could imagine. Intricate ashtray? Sure! Adapter for camera lens? Easy! Custom made holder for a microscope? It will cost a beer.
Too bad that their talent, passion and precision remained unrecognized by the manufacturers.
Only superseded by the passion for wine
It seems like in a lot of eastern and northern Europe countries, it's almost standard to have a small workshop for yourself, or at least know several people who do. I've been all over, and everyone I've stayed with has had a DIY workshop on their property.
less and less so, but yeah. alot of us had shops. thats from comunism, you could not just go and buy stuff, but you can buy tools and materials, and make stuff yourself, or a factory needs weeks to make a parts, but you and your neibhour with a lathe get it done in a day... @@tziirkq
@@tziirkqunfortunately as of late not s much people in Croatia do, because our scumbag politicians will do anything to destroy a small business owner.
Very clever clandestine weapon. That's the closest thing I've seen to an actual James Bond type device.
There are so many of these, usually commissioned by spy agencies. The infamous glove gun from WW2, the umbrella that shoots poisonous titanium balls so small they can barely be detected, the suppository gun, the lipstick gun, the pipe gun, etc.
There was some cool stuff in ww2. Notably a belt buckle gun (german). I think fw has a video.
@@hendrikvanleeuwen9110 Yep I’ve seen that video
Such a unique firearm certainly wouldn't have looked out of place and fitted in quite nicely
I wish someone had used it in an action movie back then.
Gun that could pass as a phone. Somebody call Kel Tec.
ugh, knowing them they'd screw it up and build a phone that passes as a gun.
Another company beat them to it.😢
No Calibre Tech
Should of called it cell tec
@@Salty_BallsThat would be quite dangerous. You are getting mugged and when you pull out your gun it turns out to be a phone. Good thing you still have your phone to shoot the mugger with.
Please press “1” for semi auto, press “2” for full auto.
Call 911 for fuller auto.
"your gunfight is very important to us. please hold"
So he made up a fake cell phone name, so as to not get a patent infringement? Seems like that would be the least of your worries.
More like trademark infringement, but still the least of his worries.
@@ChristianGunNut2001 my bad but you got the drift.
@@ChristianGunNut2001No, trademark infringement would get you on police radar fast.
Nokia was to be feared in the 2000s
Professionals have standards.
The US prison systems were VERY concerned about this making its way inside. Despite the fact that cellphones were already strictly banned in most states.
Lucky them, prisoners have no problem getting glocks smuggled in
The mule who has to smuggle that in through his ass is a brave lad.
@@psychopathmedia Turn the boob tube off, please, thank you.
@@psychopathmedia Turns out there are a lot of very dirty 'guards'.
Do you mean cellphone guns are banned in most states, or cellphones are banned in the prisons of most states?
"Phone gun"
Y'know, if it weren't for the fact that it's an actual thing as shown here, I'd have thought this was some James Bond Q-manufactured insanity that only works on novel/movie logic.
Covert weapons have been a thing for a long time. Go back a bit and you'll find ones which are disguised as pens, cigar tubes, walking sticks, umbrellas etc
@@drxym My favorite are bible guns. Those have been around for almost as long as pistols have.
Imagine loading those up with modern ammo like Federal Punch .22lr. That stuff is potent.
yea, the only difference is that Q-manufactured insanity would retain phone feature
Can we just stop and appreciate the fact that this man travels all over the world and gets a hold of a ton of extremely rare firearms and makes detailed videos then uploads them for free for all of us to enjoy.
You sound like a sssniperwolf fan boy
@mrmoralman1 I'll pretend like I know who that is lol.
We're here aren't we?
It's his job
And he`s darn good at it!@@konari88
"Why he chose the wrong side of the law" Well,back in 90's(not just in Croatia,but the rest of ex-Yu countries as well) you either chose a wrong side of the law or you were poor
And also, the local lawmen were commiting just as much, if not more crimes than "honest criminals"
id say that held true for the whole post-soviet space. Overwhelming chaos and the emergence of 'free' market created the perfect opportunity for the organised (and not so) crime to pop up
@@Raspredval1337 oh absolutely, when Poland went into free market after we kicked the Russians, there was a huge influx of gangsters putting up businesses to legitimise their proceedings.
Which supports my theory that the civil war in the former Yugoslavia was financed by organized crime. Even with the large Croatian and Serbian diasporas in Vancouver - hint: they have their own separate churches - they still needed serious money to finance the war.@@wojciechbieniek4029 If you read the book "Whistleblower" or see the movie by the same name, you will understand how a UN contract cop from the American mid-west exposed trafficing in drugs and sex slaves across battle-lines in the former Yugoslavia. In one case, she watched a UN-labelled ambulance move sex slaves from Serbian to Croatian territory. This is just a continuation of the centuries-old trade along the ancient Silk Roads connecting China, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. with Western Europe..
There’s a great Russian movie about this, called Брат (Brother). Recommended watch for anyone who wants to understand what life was like for the ordinary person after the fall of communism.
"Phone for you- it's the reaper"
"If you'd like to leave a complaint, press 1."
Finally, Dial M for Murder isn't just a name but an excerpt from the user manual.
Wouldn't it be smarter just to employ the guy in a real gun factory?
By the time he got a criminal record I doubted any gun factory would hire him.
There you go making sense again.
Why wouldn't you? Talent for hire. Knows differen market and their interest. Why not let him be creative and decide to produce something nice and legit & it with other "elements". ^^ @@ohredhk
Ironically, if everyone was walking around with these then people would be safer because the criminals would be worried that the other guy would have one too
@@psychopathmedia I see this argument (if everyone was armed criminals wouldnt dare to do crime) a lot but has it ever been proven to be true?
I feel old, that is not something I ever expected to be experiencing from a Forgotten Weapons video since I have no real exposure to firearms in real life but I can remember old style mobile phones like this from my childhood; in fact I can feel how the rubber used in the buttons and casing feels like in my hand, my father had a phone pouch/cover just like the one seen here in the late 90's, I can even remember the smell of it in my hands.
I like how he’s not concerned about violating firearms laws but he was definitely concerned about copyright laws with Nokia lol
In a way I can understand that decision. But not to avoid a lawsuit with Nokia, but as a way to brand his product. If anyone get a close enough look to notice the off brand name it's highly likely they will be holding it and then they are almost bound to discover that it's not a cellphone. Going from there to deducing that it's a gun is just a few seconds away.
However if those in the "business" learn that a NokiTel is a hidden gun, then you can start building brand recognition. Tell someone at a party that they should get a NokiTel and those uninitiated around you won't know what you're talking about. They might think it's some kind of phone, but they certainly won't be thinking gun. Meanwhile those looking for something like that will most likely have heard of it...
You wanna take someone out?
There's an app for that.
I have a strong feeling, that there is a possibility that somewhere in the Balkans area someone watches this video with a bit of a knowing and secretive smile under his mustache, reminiscing his younger, wild years.
You could use this covertly, then have a number of Nokia 3310 for additional melee/throwing weapon
I'm pretty sure that that's banned by the UN.
They should really just scale up the Nokia 3310 into an apc or tank hull... But even nuclear capable countries shouldn't hold that kind of capability!
Add a Samsung Note 7 for a hand grenade and you have a complete infantryman loadout right there
A number? One is already sturdy enough to crack a bank vault. Multiple would be outright overkill
Much more dangerous the Nokia.
The sturdiness of Nokia phones is beyond legendary.
(Real history here): While building one of the Madrid metro extensions one of the tunnel boring machines excavated one full Nokia phone out of a concrete slurry wall. The personnel at the machine halted the work maybe thinking that the next thing to appear through the conveyor belt was the phone owner's corpse (and in a worse shape than the phone as it should have been industrially chopped by the TBM cutters). Fortunately there was no corpse, the phone belonged to one of the workers which fell from his pocket while pouring concrete into the slurry wall.
Italy here. I remember distinctly the panic among journalists and politicos when our _Carabinieri_ started finding these around.
If i remember correctly around his second bust police also found anti aircraft cannon as fully assembled prototype.
You got to admire his commitment, but also his lack of style, he could open genuine gunsmiths shop and work what he likes. Maybe do one or two of these but sell it by untracable paths.
"Hey you, I call the shots around here!"
"Quick call an ambulance!..but not for me!"
Yes, letme get my phone... (Shoots him)
It'd be cool if the antenna was a suppressor.
I'm pretty sure that is actually the case with some of these phone guns he made
Wow that's pretty damn amazing. You can hear the quality in that piece with the firm clicks, strong cocking spring and the well machined slide to separate the 2 halves for loading. That would be an impressive and formidable gun at close range. I would not want to get a couple of well placed .22s from something I'd never guess was a firearm. Very...very cool!
.22 (short even) often with a silencer was the choice of Mafia hitmen. Pop to the head and into their car trunk. About 300, same MO around Boston over the years
That phone cover could severely weaken the shot😂
Watching you sine 2015 and Im glad to see you filming something from Croatia and my town Zagreb....I hope you enjoyd it!!
"you've got a phone-gun? Well, too bad for you, i have a Nokia bulletproof vest, and Nokia throwing axes"
Stellar everything on this one. I watch all your videos with my grandfather and this is the best one yet. Intro was perfect
Samsung did this a couple years ago too but they put a grenade in thier phone
They did the same thing with Teslas 😉
This is the reason we have to stand in line for 2 hours at the airport
water bottle gun when?
the irony being you could still smuggle a small calibre weapon or a blade through if you were determined to.
@@drxym I've accidentally been on a few international flights with a blade. It's a 'Utilikey', a small multitool that folds up into a key shape, so unless you look carefully, it just looks like another key on your keyring.
I really need to remember to take it off next time I fly, I don't want to have to explain to my boss why I couldn't make a business trip...
@@Killbayne Liquids were banned on hand language because of a bomb plot in 2006 using liquid explosives. Footwear has checked since 2001 when a guy try to bring exploding shoes onto a plane.
@@charlesleroq932 I guess you could say those shoes are da bomb 🔥🔥🔥
Why didn't I think of that?! A gun disguised as a phone?! I hate it when old technology gets the better of me.
would one bassed on a rotery phone be an assult phone????
Because they needed a way to conceal guns and they found it, did you need a way to conceal a firearm?
You might have grown up in the smart phone era which is notoriously flimsy
Back in the mid-late 90's you could just stick your Nokia 5110 in a sock and probably beat people with it- then still make a call after.
the real falure is how not being able to ticktok your shooting spree
@@robertbrodie5183 What we need is common sense phone control. We have to limit these high capacity contacts lists. 10 numbers is enough for any normal person. And no one needs fully automatic speed dialing. You should have to press each key manually.
Somebody get this man an American citizenship and a factory
This gives a whole new meaning to missed call.
So it's like one of those fake phones you got as a kid but it's not just dangerous because your cousin threw it at your head.
Still not as deadly as chucking a Nokia at someone's head!
Ian's smile and desire to applaud are priceless. Greetings from Patagonia Argentina
Everybody Gangsta til their boss starts dialing 456..
Man this phone must be the root of some nasty prank calls
"The younger" sounds way more badass than "junior"
Western naming conventions could learn a thing or two
Junior and senior are Latin words, it's hard to be more West than that.
maior and minor in latin
@@KaizoeAzurum Who said anything about the origin of words? In your desparate attempt to be a smartass, you only displayed your ignorance
(Croatian and English both have PIE roots, by the way)
@@chaimafaghet7343 Because "America" is the only place that uses Junior, right? I said what I meant to say
Jünger means boy in German, and is the source for both younger and junior.
Quickly watching this before TH-cam takes it down, like it took down Brandon's video on the Shinzo Abe assasination pistol.
Brandon actually fired that gun, and almost Kentucky Ballistic'd himself.
@@GianmarioScotti I know, i downloaded the video the moment it went live, knowing something might happen to it :P
I also "archived" that vid myself. BTW that video was a masterpiece and the weapon was actually a pipe shotgun. Oh and I don't think YT would have a problem with this one since Ian didn't show us how to make black powder step-by-step or show us the full list of products he bought on Amazon for this project.
With modern technology I am sure that could be a working phone aswell
Might have to lose a barrel or two to get a battery in there, but yeah, definitely.
You can put an entire dumb cellphone on a single chip now so yeah, with fake SIM cards it could work pretty well.
In the 00s my next door neighbor let one of her nephews live with her family just after he graduated from HS.
Kid had talent. He repaired and modified gang members' guns, including easy stuff like sawing off barrels and making custom grip to replace buttstocks.
That got him on the radar and he got raided by the cops. They also found a few burner phones and one on the workbench being rebuilt.
He had packed each full of a little box full of powder. Hit the power button and you just set off a small bomb in your hands, nasty stuff.
He got buried in charges, state and fed, I never saw him again and my neighbors didn't speak of him anymore.
I'm surprised, I thought the R9 wasn't definitively traced to a specific maker yet! I'm looking forward to hearing about that.
not definitively traced, but police initially found some weapons they list as "illegal submachine guns" (no pictures) as early as a raid on the Vugrek family household 2006. Their report says that the Vugrek household had a small factory on-site, and declared it as "one of the last illegal firearms factories" in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region.
For the next ten years, these guns would be spread over western Europe, with the Dutch making up a decent majority of seizures. It could suggest that arms made after Vugrek's release were made elsewhere, closer to the Netherlands. Could also just be coincidence and the fact that the British channel demands a lot of drug smugglers.
in 2012, a Dutch drug smuggler going to Britain was found to have an R9 SMG with a threaded barrel and suppressor. Given this, the weapon was iterative. Perhaps these "better" examples of this weapon were made in another location but I'm thinking it's still in the Vugrek household's region. Some images of this gun look quite rough-quality. Some look acceptably good and that would imply some difference between tools or at least the skill of the gunsmiths, implying they're not all in the same place with the same tools made by the same people.
That house, presumably still being in the same region, was raided again in 2015 and confirmed to have many R9 SMGs. Doubtful that they would have relocated all of the factory but still kept multiple illegal automatic weapons at the home.
funny thing is they have raided the Vugrek family home multiple times and keep finding homemade guns there, you'd think they'd learn to stop having them in the house at all!
this gives the saying "shoot me a call" a whole nother meaning lmao, what a guy, true definintion of aMadlad
Now that's a smart phone 👌
Cunningphone.
Now I finally know that mysterious person Indy Neidell speaking to.
"I'm calling an ambulance... but not for me!"
This gives "Call an ambulance, but not for me!" a new meaning...
Or "The 90's called, they want *you dead* "
*Ring ring* "it's for you!"
“Hej, primam telefonski poziv.”
“Žele razgovarati s tobom, ovdje...”
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
I bet the joke would be really funny if I spoke Croation :..)
@@psychopathmedia
'xboxhomie' used ggl translate...it's a nonsensical jumble of croatian words
@@fiditenemini2452 Thanks for letting me know. I don't speak Croatian since I'm just a stupid American
Hey, least he knew his calling 😂
About as slick as you can get. Such talent.
Read a book by Ian Hogg when I was a kid and it featured some zip guns from Northern Ireland. Been fascinated with underground and home made firearms ever since. It’s amazing what some people can engineer.
This thing is probably only marginally more dangerous to walk around with cocked and loaded than Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
Ian,
My Uncle Wiley used to be a machinist at Texas Instruments here in the Sherman area. Years ago he built a single shot .410 disguised as a Pager. Sadly, he destroyed it after the Feds approached him for making a Suppressor for a friend of his. And he has Alzheimer's now as well. But it would have been cool if he could have shown it to you because it looked like the real thing just like this "Cell Phone" does.
You can't stop the signal, Zagreb.
love how these videos still look like they were filmed in 2007.
When your burner brings the heat
Imagine accidentally answering the wrong phone and losing half your hearing
dude! I'm so glad you visited us!!
Shortly after invading Bosnia back in '95 with the 1st Armored Division, we got reports of a cell phone gun being found in the AOR and to be on the lookout for them.
We also got the same reports in '99 when we invaded Kosovo.
These things have been around for a while in the Balkans.
This is a really awesome insight, thank you. Maybe Vugrek copied this idea, or maybe he'd been getting away with it and making money for quite a while.
Thanks for the first-hand perspective
You should make your own videos on these kinds of topics I like seeing what people directly involved have to say
1 st armored division?
Invaded? lol
@@richard_from_england333 Exactly my thoughts 😂
Q approves this design!
For the preservation of history, and possibly creating yourself another series of books, is there any way that you could start 3D scanning these historically curious or significant Firearms and creating blueprints for posterity? So that in the event the items are lost to history there would be an accurate design description, blueprint and then a bit of history?
These are the videos i love most on this channel.
Firearms Curiosa
The OG “killer app.”
I giggle at the Nokitel brand name
Croatia are friggin amazing people. My Croatian grandma and great grandma could take any ingredients and make a delicious meal. The men can do this stuff. 😅
They should’ve called this the “Kall Tek”
Or "Kill Tek"?
I believe "Nokitel" is a merger of "Nokia" and "Mobitel" (*Mobi*le *Tel*ephone ie. cellphone)
Trigger Happy TV flashbacks-it’s a good thing Dom Joly never had one of these
Aye but the size of the one he had you could fit 4 Charlie Gs🤣
"Nokitel"
When you're a Croatian mafia gangster but don't want to infringe any Intellectual Property laws
If there is anything the north balkans do different from the south, its knowing to fear the taxman and international IP lawsuits (unlike the politicians which are just as scummy and corrupt no matter where you go in the backwaters of europe), just as their respective ex rulers in form of Austria and Ottomans.
if I had a company that designed guns, I'd have hired this guy as soon as he left prison.
I remember a guy in the U.S. who got in trouble for making pager guns that were very similar.
Can you remember if the pager guns were capable of firing a .380" ACP (only one shot would be needed) and around by April 1999? I do have a specific unsolved incident in mind, but I don't want to go off at half-cock, so I'd better not spell out the one I mean. Yet.
As I remember they were multi barrel .22's but the time frame sounds right. It was some kid making them at home and selling them to execs and probably dealers (The only 2 types who carried pagers). I think it was Chicago but I may be wrong.
@@FunnyHaHa420 Thank you, that is helpful. The other people who carried pagers were doctors, especially _surgeons on call._ There was a suspect for a murder committed in Fulham, London, whom the police failed to seriously investigate. He was a surgeon and hospital chief of staff with a substantial inherited property portfolio, in Texas. He could have afforded whatever the kid was charging, perhaps even for a custom job. He was also had a PPL and was friends with pilots and execs at United Airlines. (Even friendlier with female flight attendants!) I had been thinking about him getting airline staff to sneak his weapon through airports, but if it was a _pager_ and he had a US or even UN passport saying he was a surgeon doing work for the WHO, who might need to travel without a visa, he could have worn it on his belt and walked straight through!
Mirko Vugrek was like: "I'm gonna call my lawyer now"
My first thought was “what if you forgot to remove the dummy antenna before firing chamber #1.”
You'd get even worse reception.
While the museum doesnt have it, iirc it was one of the first things to be changed to a elongated chamber with a retooled kids candy pop cap instead (those do get stuck like a motherfuckerer on the candy tubes, but a bullet should in fact pierce it, after all its noki-tel not the early 2000s nokia).
Ian: "They were really talented!"
*The State:* "Too talented..."
Mirko the Younger, Forger of Weapons
"Hold on a second, I just got to type in the PIN."
Keltec: *heavy breathing*
Nice presentation Ian..
The antenna doubles as silencer?😅
Really enjoyed that one - thanks Ian
Man, Niko Bellic would love one 😂
Niko! It's your cousin! Let's go bowling!
@@Immopimmowould definitely make saying NO over the phone more effective 😂
Super cool firearm! Loved this video and wish we saw more clandestine firearm series
Imagine what modern day intelligence agencies have
Lethal poison from a SIM card kit, probably.
This has to be the most 007 shit I've ever seen.
Imagine getting a call from the Bogdanoffs on this thing and when you're ordered to 'Dump eet' you unload on someone.
The BOGG-phone takes you out when your protfolio reaches JUST status
Mi estimado Ian... Es ud una persona excepcionalmente amable al mostrarnis todo esto... Estoy tremendamente agradecido...siga asi... Saludos..
Call an ambulance but not for me reaches new heights
Mirko Vugrek jr. said that current political party set him up. He was in jail for a year and a half. Mirko and Ivan Vugrek wanted to sell Agram 2000 for 900 DEM, but croatian army officer insisted that price should be 1300 DEM. 100 DEM per weapon would go to that officer, and 300 would go to his superiors. Vugrek family denied his request and that's where troubles began. I'm croatian and that story sounds like a typical Croatian (homeland war) story.
Pozdrav od čoveka koji je živeo svuda. Ta priča je realnost sveta - trećina. Jedna za radnika, jedna za materijal, jedna za posrednike. Na veliku žalost, kod nas je postojala čast i postojao je obraz. Zato se i danas slabo snalazimo. Ako mi ne veruješ, pogledaj koliko u US ima naprofitnih organizacija. Šta misliš, čemu služe?
Zagreb has the best pizza ever.
Love this James Bond-style of weaponry! Hope you can find more of these special guns.
If someone had described this to me, would not believe it without seeing it. It is bananas.
07-08 everyone wanted a tiny Ericsson, so maybe they should have gone smaller