LOHAN A HIJACKETER

GAL FUR-IOUS AFTER ACTRESS PHOTOGRAPHED WEARING HER PRIZED COAT

May 6, 2008 --

A Columbia co-ed wants to know how Lindsay Lohan ended up wearing her $11,000 blond mink coat - and is demanding the "Mean Girl" pay for the impromptu rental.

Masha Markova, 22, believed she had forever lost the prized jacket - a gift from her grandmother - while attending a private birthday party at 1Oak in the Meatpacking District in the early-morning hours of Jan. 26.

The club was closed for a friend of jet-setting playboy Stavros Niarchos, Markova said.

She added that at one point, she was seated next to Lohan, and recalled putting the mink in a common bin with other jackets.

It was gone when she prepared to leave 1Oak after an hour, Markova said.

Two weeks later, Markova flipped through the Feb. 11 edition of OK! Magazine and couldn't believe her eyes - Lohan was photographed the night of Jan. 26 wearing the very same fur coat.

"I was actually talking on the phone to my grandmother about something else, and then I flipped through the magazine, saw the picture said, 'I need to call you back,' " Markova told The Post yesterday.

"It was my coat. It was no doubt!"

The pretty co-ed said that in the ensuing days, she surfed the Internet and found several paparazzi photos of Lohan wearing the distinctive blond coat hours after the birthday party they had both attended.

Also, celebrity blogs posted pictures of the actress party-hopping that night - wearing a black coat before she arrived at 1Oak, Markova said.

Club owners vowed to get to the bottom of it, but several days passed with no call back, Markova said.

That's when her immigration lawyer, Merrill Cohen, called Lohan's high-powered Hollywood attorney, Blair Berk, threatening litigation.

Hours later, Markova said she heard from 1Oak.

"They were very discreet, never mentioned a name or even the word 'coat,' " Markova said. "They just said, 'We're going to bring you something.' "

The coat arrived at Markova's Morningside Heights apartment two days later.

Reeking of cigarettes and booze with a slight tear in the lining, the fur coat was no worse for wear after a dry cleaning and quick patch-up.

Still, she wants answers - and Lohan to own up to swiping her coat.

"I don't see how it could have been an accident," Markova said.

Markova and her lawyer stopped short of accusing Lohan of wrongdoing. But they still want her to pay at least $10,000 for the unauthorized, three-week rental.

Lohan's spokeswoman did not return calls.

A 1Oak rep confirmed that the club delivered Markova's fur coat back to her in February.

"I am not the coat keeper. I'm not sure where the coat was," said club spokeswoman Lisette Sand-Freedman.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05062008/news/nationalnews/lohan_a_hijacketer_109595.htm