Jana

Jana is a young gypsy girl who MacGyver first encountered when she tried to pick his pocket during a mission to Budapest to make contact with double agent, Nicolai Grodsky.

Jana lived with her gypsy family in Budapest where she would join their street performances playing tambourine and collecting tips from passersby. She was also a practiced pickpocket, stealing money and items of value to trade. She carried a pendant around her neck with an engraved image of Saint Dismas, the patron saint of thieves.

She had tried to pickpocket MacGyver’s knife but he caught her in the act. After explained how he’d caught her she offered him a gypsy blessing to make amends – and then successfully picked the knife from his pocket as she left.

Shortly after, she stole a watch from Nicolai Grodsky which he was using to transfer Soviet intelligence information to MacGyver. The KGB, who had been lying in wait to capture both Grodsky and MacGyver, soon realized that Jana had taken the watch and both her and her family became targets of the KGB, who promptly arrested her brothers and grandfather and sent them to Borza Prison for questioning to find the location of the watch. MacGyver and Jana quickly broke them out of prison, but then learned that Bruno had already sold the watch to a local fence named Reena. Jana and her family helped MacGyver reacquired the watch from Reena and in return, MacGyver reluctantly agreed to help the family escape and relocate to the US.

MacGyver and the gypsies led Kossov, Inspector Messic, and the Hungarian police through the city of Budapest in three stolen Mini Cooper cars and eventually crossed the border into Austria where MacGyver arranged for Jana and her family to be processed for their trip to America.  As a parting gift, MacGyver gave Jana his knife and in return, she gave him her Saint Dismas necklace.