43 Things From The Netflix "Bling Ring" Documentary That Are Almost Too Wild To Be Believed
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Warning: This post discusses addiction and substance abuse.
Recently, Netflix released the documentary series The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.
The series dives deep into the 2008/2009 "Bling Ring" scandal when a group of teenagers burglarized the homes and stole million of dollars' worth of property from major celebrities like Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Rachel Bilson. It includes first-hand accounts from Nick Prugo, who claims to be one of the masterminds, and Alexis Neiers, whose reality show Pretty Wild helped publicize the crimes. It also speaks with prosecutors, attorneys, and law enforcement who were involved in the case.
As someone who's been following the Bling Ring story for years, I eagerly sat down to watch. Here are 43 things I learned:
1.Nick Prugo, one of the main players in the Bling Ring, grew up in the San Fernando Valley, "quite literally in the shadow of Hollywood."
2.When he was a kid, Nick wanted to be an actor because he was "interested in [the] fame and celebrity." He was even an extra on Zoey 101.
He eventually quit acting, stating that he "started becoming way more self-conscious." He continued, explaining, "I was, you know, going on these auditions, and it was becoming more and more of something I would dread."
3.Alexis Neiers was also involved with the Bling Ring and grew up in the San Fernando Valley with her sister Gabby and best friend Tess Taylor. They were all featured on the 2010 reality TV show, Pretty Wild. Like Nick, she was also no stranger to the entertainment industry — her father was a director of photography on Friends, and she spent time on set as a child.
4.In June 2006, Nick and his family moved to Calabasas where he eventually met Rachel Lee who would later be convicted and named in court as one of the masterminds behind the Bling Ring. According to Nick, their first crime together involved stealing a wallet out of a parked car and going on a shopping spree with the credit cards found inside.
They allegedly spent around $5,500. Afterwards, they created a whole system for checking cars. According to Nick, the wealthiest communities left their cars unlocked.
5.But that's hardly where their interest in crime ended, says Nick, who continued with a story about stealing a $73,000 car because the owner had left the keys inside. They allegedly got away with it by switching the license plates, and they even drove it to school (they were both 16 years old at the time).
6.Meanwhile, Alexis and her family were struggling financially due to her parents' divorce. As a result, Alexis's mother Andrea began studying and teaching her daughters the "law of attraction," also known as the philosophy behind The Secret.
Alexis Neiers said in the documentary, "My mom really dove into that church, specifically, because she wanted to believe that she could think away her problems."
7.As part of the law of attraction, Alexis's family wrote and repeated a daily affirmation that they would all one day work in the entertainment industry.
To help jumpstart their careers, Andrea allegedly took Alexis and her friend Tess (who was living with them at the time, and considered a part of the family) to downtown Los Angeles to get fake IDs.
8.According to Nick, he and Rachel were "spending as much as [they] were stealing," and as a result, "needed another score." So, they robbed the home of an old friend of Nick's after he posted on Myspace that he was going on vacation.
They allegedly stole around $8,000 in cash, but their victim claims it was closer to $30,000-$40,000.
9.Nick and Rachel thought that robbing a celebrity would "be an excellent mark to hit," according to Nick. So, Nick began searching celebrity gossip websites for potential opportunities. They ultimately chose Paris Hilton.
Nick said in the documentary that because of Paris's "ditzy blonde" persona on her reality show The Simple Life, they thought she'd be "more prone to maybe leaving something unlocked."
10.When Nick and Rachel arrived at Paris's house for the first time, the front door was unlocked, according to Nick, so they went right in.
According to Nick, Rachel called their celeb robberies "going shopping."
11.Nick says that because they assumed Paris had been gifted most of her belongings, they didn't see Paris as the true victim.
During that robbery, they allegedly stole around $50,000 worth of merchandise, including clothing and cash left in Paris's purses.
12.After monitoring the gossip sites for news of Paris's robbery and finding nothing, Nick says that he and Rachel were emboldened to do it again. On their second visit, they allegedly found a key under Paris's mat that gave them access to the house whenever they wanted. They allegedly went four to five more times, sometimes while Paris was still in town.
During this time, Nick says he and Rachel enlisted Nick's friend Courtney Ames to help with one of the robberies. Courtney would later be convicted as part of the Bling Ring in court and sentenced to probation and community service.
13.During one of their robberies, Nick claims he and Rachel found a bag of cocaine in Paris's home, which they promptly stole and used. However, a representative for Paris spoke to Netflix and denied this claim.
14.According to Nick, he and Rachel reached a point where they couldn't find any more money at Paris's house, so they decided to go for the jewelry in her safe. To avoid having it traced back to them, they enlisted Courtney's coworker, Roy Lopez, to do the job. Roy allegedly stole around $2 million worth of Paris's jewelry. It hit the news cycle the very next day.
Nick claims that Roy Lopez "wasn't really sophisticated enough" to sell any of the jewelry, so they really didn't get that much money from the robbery.
15.During this time, Nick met Alexis through Tess Taylor, and they all began partying together in the LA club scene. Nick told them he was a "stylist" and that was why he had so much money and such nice clothes.
Alexis claims in the documentary that she believed Nick's lie, while Tess Taylor said in a statement to Netflix that Alexis and her sister Gabby both knew that Nick wasn't a stylist.
16.After no gossip sites named them in the latest Paris robbery, Nick and Rachel targeted Audrina Patridge, because Rachel "really liked Audrina Patridge's style," according to Nick. They allegedly entered through an unlocked sliding glass door on February 22, 2009 while Audrina was out at an Oscar's party, and took a Louis Vuitton suitcase full of clothes, some jewelry, and other merchandise totaling around $43,000.
17.Nick and Rachel were caught on camera thanks to Audrina's security system, so when Audrina discovered the footage, she gave it to the LAPD and TMZ. It immediately hit the news cycle. Nick said in the documentary, "I thought we were fucked, I thought we were going to get caught."
18.Meanwhile, after doing the daily affirmation for quite some time, Alexis and her family were approached by E! to shoot a pilot for a reality show about their lives in LA, which would eventually become Pretty Wild. Alexis described the original concept as a "hippie version of the Kardashians."
19.Nick says that after Audrina Patridge's footage ran its course in the news cycle, he and Rachel still weren't caught, so they decided to rob Rachel Bilson next.
20.On their way to Rachel Bilson's home, Nick and Rachel were allegedly pulled over by a cop for speeding, but he let them off with a warning.
21.Once they got there, Nick and Rachel allegedly entered Rachel Bilson's home through an unlocked window. According to Nick, Rachel felt so comfortable that she actually used the restroom while they were there.
They allegedly stole up to $220,000 worth of merchandise, including Rachel Bilson's mother's engagement ring.
22.The very next day, Nick allegedly took some of the stolen merchandise over to Tess and Alexis's house and let them pick whatever they wanted. Alexis denies knowing that the clothes were stolen.
Nick, on the other hand, claims that Tess and Alexis had "received the leftovers" since he and Rachel started robbing Paris Hilton.
23.Meanwhile, according to Alexis, she was introduced to OxyContin for the first time by her sister Gabby and family friend Tess. This, says Alexis, was the start of an ongoing addiction for Tess and Alexis.
Gabby corroborated this by saying, "Tess and I were the ones who brought Oxy to my sister, actually, for the first time. Her and I tried it at some kid's house in the Valley that she knew."
24.Next up on the list of celebrities, according to Nick, was Orlando Bloom. Nick claims that Alexis "begged him" to go, while Alexis claims that she was "open to the idea of robbing a house to get money for drugs." Rachel ended up bringing her friend Diana as well.
25.Alexis claims that she doesn't remember much of the robbery because she was under the influence, and denies knowing that she was at Orlando Bloom's house that night. However, Nick claims that she was "more than sober and more than aware" during the events that occurred.
26.In order to avoid getting caught by security cameras again, the group walked backwards with their hoods up, according to Nick, and entered through an unlocked sliding door, according to Alexis. They allegedly stole around $550,000 worth of merchandise, including Rolex watches and $5,000 cash.
27.After the Orlando Bloom robbery, E! picked up the Pretty Wild pilot. According to Andrea, she and her daughters along with Tess were each offered a $50,000 signing bonus. Alexis claims they were also given around $100,000 to film the full season.
28.Nick claims that he and Rachel decided to rob Lindsay Lohan's home as "one last hurrah," and that he wasn't comfortable with the burglary, but felt like he had to keep going in order to maintain his relationship with Rachel. They allegedly stole around $120,000 worth of merchandise, and Nick claims his car was "stuffed" with Lindsay's belongings.
29.Footage from Lindsay Lohan's security cameras showed law enforcement that the perpetrators were the same ones caught on tape robbing Audrina Patridge's home, so they once again gave the footage to TMZ, according to former LAPD detective Greg Kading.
At this time, Nick says he moved all of this stolen merchandise to a storage facility at his grandmother's to avoid getting caught.
30.After seeing the footage, Tess and Alexis allegedly called the Hollywood Police Department and named Nick as one of the people involved in the burglaries, according to Alexis. Alexis's sister Gabby didn't agree with that decision.
Tess said in a statement to Netflix that she denies being a part of the phone call.
31.After receiving the tip, the LAPD arrested Nick and brought him in for questioning on the Audrina Patridge and Lindsay Lohan burglaries, but didn't have enough physical evidence, so he was let out on bail.
32.Once Nick was out, his parents recommended an attorney for him, but Nick claims he "didn't want some old geezer with a potbelly, even if that was the best attorney in town," so he went with Sean Erenstoft instead.
Sean calculated that Nick could face up to 48 years in prison.
33.Sean advised Nick that if he confessed to all the burglaries and implicated everyone who participated, he would be granted immunity and serve no time. So, that's exactly what Nick did. District attorneys on the case found this "unusual," but also acknowledged that they wouldn't have been able to solve the case had it not been for Nick's confession.
34.After Nick named Alexis in his confession, she was arrested and taken in for questioning on the second day of filming the first episode of her reality show, Pretty Wild.
35.Nick claims that despite what Sean initially told him, the immunity attempt was essentially worthless because Sean didn't secure a written immunity agreement. So, Nick ended up being charged with the burglaries he confessed to.
Nick eventually fired Sean and got a new attorney.
Sean said in the documentary, "Immunity deals are usually in writing. But I knew I couldn't get a written immunity deal. The reason I was comfortable with it not being in writing is because I already had [detective] Brett Goodkin's commitment that he'd place it in writing in the form of a police report. Whether it was a written immunity deal, or a promise, Nick was going to be the rat, and he was gonna be rewarded for it at the tail end."
36.While Alexis was in jail, E! wasn't sharing whether they'd continue filming the reality show. Alexis's mother Andrea stated: "My intention was that they would keep the show. So, what I felt like was important, was for them to show her being released. I knew that was gonna be an important scene."
37.In fact, Pretty Wild producers decided to recreate the scene where Alexis got arrested for the burglaries, because they hadn't gotten it on film. The scene that we see in the show is completely fake.
38.Some of the most damning evidence in the case was photos of Bling Ring members wearing stolen merchandise on social media. Nick claims he even sent some of the photos to detectives to help "curry favor."
39.In order to change the narrative around her involvement with the case, Alexis spoke to Nancy Jo Sales for a profile in Vanity Fair. When the magazine issue came out, producers knew Alexis wouldn't like what was written, so they put it in her mailbox in order to film her reaction. This led to the chaotic (and iconic) scene from Pretty Wild many of us are familiar with.
Producers also suggested that Alexis call Nancy Jo in the first place. In the documentary, Alexis described the article as a "sexist hit piece trying to paint me in a negative light based off of the way I looked."
40.After the case became international news, Nick would call the paparazzi at TMZ and tell them where he was in order to get photographed. Once, they even photographed him wearing Orlando Bloom's stolen hat and sunglasses.
He also gave television interviews without his attorney's consent, including one with Good Morning America.
41.In May 2010, Orlando Bloom announced that he planned to testify against Alexis in her upcoming trial. At that point, despite feeling like they had a "really strong defense," Alexis and her attorneys decided to take a plea deal offered by the district attorney. She pled no contest to one count of residential burglary, and was sentenced to three years' probation and six months in county jail.
42.Nick's new attorney worked out a deal with prosecutors for his cooperation in the case. He was ultimately sentenced to two years in state prison. Rachel Lee was sentenced to four years in state prison.
43.And finally, four years after everything unfolded, Sofia Coppola's film The Bling Ring premiered in 2013. Both Nick and Alexis have stated they were unhappy with how they were portrayed.
You can stream The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist on Netflix.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.
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