Audrina Patridge Recalls Moment She “Locked” Herself in Closet After Bling Ring Robbery

Audrina Patridge is recalling the terrifying moment she locked herself in her closet after being targeted by the infamous Bling Ring burglars.

During a recent appearance on the Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen podcast, The Hills star and The O.C. alum realized they were both among the celebrities that were targeted by a group of five Los Angeles teenagers and 20-somethings, dubbed the “Bling Ring,” who went on a crime spree from 2008 to 2009.

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“They took trash bags of stuff,” Patridge said. “They knew I was at an Oscars party, and they knew that because I tweeted it, but then I had cameras and my cameras are the ones that caught their [Nick Prugo and Rachel Lee] faces and I posted it on my website, and said if anyone knows of these people let me know.”

The reality star added that she got “nothing” back that was stolen, including her aunt’s vintage Chanel watches and other precious heirlooms, which Bilson added “was so fucked up.”

But Patridge remembered being terrified once she got back home that night and realized items of hers were missing because she wasn’t sure if there were people still inside her home.

“I just got back from Australia,” she recalled. “I co-hosted the VMAs or something out there. So everything was still packed, got home, changed, and then I went to the party and came home and I was like, ‘Am I losing my mind?’ My suitcase is gone, my laptop, everything is off my bed. Like, what is going on?”

She continued, “And then I went in my closet and I called my sister and I was like, ‘OK, if I open my jewelry box and stuff is gone, someone is in my house,’ and I opened it, everything was gone. And so that’s when I locked myself in [the closet], ‘cause I didn’t know if they were still in the house. … Afraid to get off the phone so I had my brother call 911 while I was on speaker and then they sent the cops.”

Patridge and Bilson both agreed on the “invasiveness” of the robberies, with the latter saying she eventually moved because she felt too “violated” after “they went into my house five different times.”

The Hills alum added that “she went and stayed with my mom in Orange County for a while. I was like, I don’t wanna be in that house.”

Other stars whose homes were targeted in the Hollywood crime spree included Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom. The members of the “Bling Ring” — Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Courtney Ames and Diana Tamayo — stole roughly $3 million in total in belongings and cash.

Lee, named the group’s ringleader, was sentenced to four years in prison but only served 16 months, while Neiers was in prison for more than a month and Prugo served one year.

The real-life story also became the focus of several movies and docuseries, including Lifetime’s The Bling Ring, the Sofia Coppola-directed film The Bling Ring, HBO’s The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring and Netflix’s The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.

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