All language subtitles for The.Ringleader.The.Case.Of.The.Bling.Ring.2023.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

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[keyboard clacking]

- [sighs]

Are you ready for this?

[somber music]

♪ ♪

Most people--
if they saw me on the street,

they'd be like, "Oh, she's
just a normal person."

But there's always
the anxiety.

What if they realize
who I am...

[tense music]

And what I did
with the Bling Ring?

[heavy hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

- The Bling Ring is
a media sensation.

"The Bling Ring" is
the name of a movie.

- The Bling Ring was one
of the first big

social media crimes.

It was juicy in
all the right ways.

The Bling Ring is
a group of young people

in their late teens:

Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo,
Alexis Neiers, Courtney Ames,

Roy Lopez, and Diana Tamayo.

- Wasn't there
another guy, Ajar?

- Yes.
Johnny Ajar.

In the late 2000s, these kids
robbed a bunch of celebrities

that they wanted to emulate.

[cameras clicking]

- Rachel Bilson,
Orlando Bloom,

Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton.

There are more--at least ten--

at least ten homes.

- They took $2 million
from Paris Hilton's alone

in jewelry,
$500,000 from Orlando Bloom.

[reporters clamoring]

The Bling Ring was
a reality show

in and of itself.

- They were almost like
these young stars themselves,

except for one of them.

- Rachel Lee kept
a much lower profile.

- Rachel never gave
an interview.

Everyone else has been like,
"She was the mastermind.

She was the ringleader."

But she has herself

just not talked about it.

- I don't know what happened
to Rachel Lee.

- She's an enigma to me.

- [sighs]

[sighs]

Hello, everybody.

- So basically,
there's a Hollywood version

of the story,
then there's a real version.

- Mm-hmm.

There sure is.

There sure is.

I don't resonate with that
Hollywood version at all,

but I could see
how it was quite entertaining

for the world
to see the story that way.

It was more of a storm for me.

So when I think about it,
it's like--

it's so simple for me
to sit here and tell you, like,

I could never go
into somebody's house,

I could never steal
anything from anybody,

like, I would never
hurt somebody.

Like, no.

But back then,
that wasn't the truth.

So I was hurting people,
like, by stealing.

And everything that we do
has a consequence.

And the consequence
that I have to deal with

is that in history,
my name is--

was kind of dragged
through the dirt.

But who created that?
I did.

I did.

- You probably never heard
of Rachel Lee.

Yes, but she's paying the price
for leading the Bling Ring.

- Lee is the mastermind
behind several burglaries.

- Rachel Lee was described
by many people

as this fashion icon
in her school.

She loved nice clothes
and nice things.

- She was portrayed
as a charismatic leader,

a super popular girl.

- Most revealing may be
Lee's reported reaction

when arrested.

- She supposedly was told
something about Lindsay Lohan,

and she's very upset
about this.

Rachel Lee stops and says--

- Really?
What did Lindsay say?

- She was reported to be,
like, obsessed with fame

and wanted to be
like Mean Girls.

- ♪ You can change
your life if you want to ♪

♪ Change your clothes ♪

- Lee and her attorney refused
our requests for an interview,

but Lee told one
of our producers in court

she has no regrets.

- Hello?

Hey.
What's up?

I'm at home.

Yesterday?

Oh, yeah.

Well, my mom believed
the whole thing.

Yeah, but then, you know,
like that whole thing?

My mom found out about it,
and she got really mad at me.

She was like, "Why didn't
you tell me?", blah blah.

I was like, "Oh, my God."

My parents divorced
when I was one.

And when I was a kid,

my mom didn't
get off work until 6:30,

so after school,

I would always snoop
through my mom's stuff.

There was one particular day
that I was looking

through all
of, like, her purses,

and then there was,
like, a briefcase.

I, like, reached my hand in,
and I, like, brought out

a fresh stack of hundreds.

It was, like, fresh.

And I just remember, like,
sliding off that crispy bill.

I just, like, slid it off,

and I was, like,
"She'll never notice.

Like, it's just one."

[moody electronic music]

That part of me has
always been inside of me,

this, like, "Dang, I'm sly.

Like, I'm--
I'm a master manipulator."

- ♪ Hey ♪

♪ ♪

- I had this insatiable desire

to have as much
as I could have.

But, I mean, that was
kind of the energy back then.

[upbeat rock music]

- How are you, Paris?
- Paris!

- She spent $10,000, mind you.

- $20,000.

- Hi, Kim.

- Did you enjoy
their selection?

- The 2000s was the era
of the desire for fame.

- Audrina, what's going on?

- Get her, get her, get her!

- Attention, love, money.

- I went to the Swarovski store
and I got this amazing purse.

- It's the birth
of this sort of new kind

of celebrity reality TV

where it seemed
like anybody could be famous.

Nick Lachey
and Jessica Simpson,

the Kardashians, The Hills.

- Do you know why
I'm mad at you?

- Why, Lauren?
- You know why I'm mad at you.

- Why?
- You know what you did!

- Why?
What did I do?

- You didn't have
to get, like, discovered

and have any skills.

You just had to, like, be
outrageous

and walk around in clothing,
and then you'd be famous.

- Paris Hilton
and Kim Kardashian,

who people still accuse
of being famous

for doing nothing--
I think,

essentially what people

really started out
liking about them

was that they were
just showing their lives.

- Let's look into our fridge.

No, I did not redo
this just for you guys.

This is how it is at all times.

- Before then,
we see a celebrity,

we think of them as untouchable

or almost like they live
in a different world.

- Now "Cribs" was on.
Right?

MTV "Cribs."

- Yo. What up, man?

It's your boy Bow Wow,
welcoming y'all to my crib.

You know what I mean?
- I'm Mariah Carey.

Welcome to my crib.

Come on in.
This is the shoe room.

The style that I favor
would be a high stiletto.

[laughs]

- Oh, Frankie invited us
to his birthday party

at Les Deux tonight.

- Now it's really easy
to be close to a celebrity.

- On "The Hills," they would go
to a club called Les Deux.

Like, you started to see places
like Urth Cafe,

which is just like

an average place
to go get coffee,

glorified on a show
like "Entourage,"

where people would go
repeatedly.

And for those six months
or a year,

it was, like, the place to go.

And people were
literally making pilgrimages

to go to Kitson,
to go to Les Deux,

to go to Urth Cafe.

And, of course,
there was Calabasas.

[spacey music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Best days in the Valley ♪

- Calabasas is where I grew up.

- Calabasas is kind of
on the northern side

of the county.

Kim Kardashian and her family
moved out there,

and that's when it
kind of hit the map, I think.

But it's just known

as a quiet, upper-class
neighborhood

with good schools,
and it's not really known for--

at least on our map--
a lot of criminal activity.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- I'm from Calabasas.

Growing up in Calabasas
was an exercise

in seeing people
on their 16th birthdays

wake up and see
that Daddy had rolled in

a 320i black BMW for them.

- I think, like,
the worst car,

like, in general in Calabasas,
like, in the parking lot,

was, like, a Jetta.

♪ ♪

- [laughs]
Rachel's a dork.

Look at her.

Here's a car.

Ooh, it's a BMW, baby!

- That's so rude!
- Why?

Oh, Rachel, guess what?

I was at my friend Matt's
house, okay?

And Leo was there.

- When?
- Yesterday.

I was talking to him.

I was, like, "Hey, do
you know Rachel Lee?"

He's like, "Yeah, Rachel?
She's really, really annoying,

and, like, she thinks
she's so all that."

I was like, "What?"
- Leo?

- Yeah.
Leo said that.

And I was like, "Um, okay.

No, not that Rachel then."

He goes, "Rachel Lee.

She's kind of Chinese?"

I was like, "Yeah.
That Rachel."

[quiet discordant music]

♪ ♪

- Calabasas is
a predominantly white town.

If you were not white,
then you were an outsider.

- I was so ashamed
of being Korean,

and I would get, like,
so flattered

when people would say,
"Oh, are you half Korean?"

♪ ♪

I wish I was pretty
like Courtney.

Even the way that
Korean people looked,

because I was,
like, all the time

with, like, non-Koreans.

And I would think sometimes,
"Am I deformed?"

♪ ♪

I never actually knew

the amount of money
that we had,

but through material things,
I could see that we weren't,

like, super-rich,
we weren't super-poor,

just, like, middle-class.

But compared to where
my friends lived,

my house was
the smallest house.

The mansions that
their parents have were huge,

and the mom was, like,
the hot mom

who was, like, dressed in what
we were wearing, too.

The kids also
kind of followed that suit.

And so I was always
asking for,

"Oh, can I please have
this Juicy Couture purse?"

Or "Can I please have
this Tiffany's necklace?"

Because I have this--

I struggle with FOMO
really badly,

and so I wanted
my mom to always buy me

something designer.

I think it made me feel rich.

It made me feel I'm part
of this material world,

like I can show up, too.

When I got into middle school

and I was just, like,
my dorky little self,

and I would see all these girls
that were, like,

so cool looking
and so hot and fun,

I was like, "Nobody ever
tells me I'm hot and fun."

I felt kind of, like,
frustrated with my family.

My mom--she's a lawyer,
a criminal defense attorney.

And then my father--

he went into accounting.

And for my parents,
going to university

and doing really good
in school

was extremely important.

That was
heavily instilled into me.

You need to go to university.

You need to take SATs.

You need to go to Hagwon,
which is like SAT prep.

And I was sick of it.

I didn't want
to be that anymore.

I was like,
"I wanna be a badass."

- ♪ Say my name ♪

♪ Don't want to talk back ♪

♪ I take your place ♪

♪ I'm in control ♪

♪ Bye bye, kiss you goodbye ♪

- [growls]

I wanna prove
I am not afraid of anything.

[growls]

That I'm down for whatever,
especially drugs.

One day, when I was 14,
I was at a pool...

[tranquil music]

And this boy that I had met
held out his hand,

and there was
a bunch of pills.

Some of them were Xanax,
and some of them were ecstasy.

And he said, "Do you want one?"

And I was like,
"What's that one?"

And it had, like, four little--

that's what you call,
like, a bar.

And he was like,
"Oh, try it."

And he broke me off a quarter,

and I had it...

♪ ♪

And then I didn't have
a care in the world.

There was no worries for me.

♪ ♪

When I had experienced Xanax,

it was, like, a catalyst
for a lot of things.

[driving electronic music]

It took away my emotion,

and because I didn't care,

I could act the way
that I've always wanted to...

♪ ♪

And I wanted to party.

♪ ♪

[laughter]

I was a follower

that didn't want to look
like a follower.

I wanted to look like a leader,
but my true self,

my true nature, I'm--

I'm more of a follower.

At school, this certain girl--

she was the first person
who introduced cocaine to me,

Parliament cigarettes to me.

She was a really cool girl.

I honestly wanted to be her.

I really did.

She and I went
into the locker room.

We saw, like, two pairs
of Uggs,

and we dumped our shoes,
and we put on the Uggs,

and we walked
out of the locker room.

And then her and I were,
like, walking around campus.

We were like, "Oh, cool,
we have Uggs now.

Like, cool."

All of a sudden,

these two girls
just started, like,

beelining it towards us,
and they were like,

"Those are our Uggs."

And we were like,
"No, they're not."

And she was like,
"Lift up your foot."

And I was like, "No."

And she was like, "Lift it up."

And I was like, "No."

And so they're like, "Okay,

we're gonna go
tell on you then."

And we're like,
"Okay go, narc."

I looked on the bottom
of the Ugg,

and it had, like,
a heart drawn.

And I remember,
I was like, "Shit."

I was like, "I gotta
get rid of this,"

so I, like, took
a chunk out of it.

They were calling our names
over the speaker.

"Come to the office."

- Your presence is required.

- This is the thing.

I always had a problem
with admitting that--

like, if I'm already
in the lie,

it's really hard for me--

it was hard for me to admit it.

See, my friend--
she broke down instantly.

She's like, "Oh, my God,
I'm so sorry.

"I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Like, here's the shoes."

But I--I'm so stubborn
that I was like,

"No, these are my Uggs.
These are my Uggs."

The counselor was like,
"You know,

"your friend already
gave back the Uggs.

Just give it back."
You know?

And I was like, "No.
They're my Uggs."

That was a big, big mistake.

After that,
I got kicked out of Calabasas,

and I went
to continuation school.

- She went to Indian Hills
High School.

- The high school
behind the high school.

- It was the kind of thing
where kids at Calabasas High

would make fun of you
if you were known

to be going to Indian Hills.

It was basically the last stop
before dropping out.

Or if you had
major learning disabilities,

you'd end up at Indian Hills.

- And so for me,
I was like, "All right,

let's go down the rebel road."

You know?
Like, how can I make it

the best rebel road
I can make it?

[scoffs]

- And that's when Nick Prugo
entered the picture.

- ♪ You wanna see me
drop it, drop it ♪

♪ Wanna pop it, pop it,
pop it ♪

♪ Shake that ass
on the floor ♪

- Nick Prugo came
from a middle-class home

and had a nice house
in a nice part of the area.

[sly music]

- Nick Prugo said that he
didn't have a lot of friends,

he was looking to fit in.

♪ ♪

- Nick and I met on Myspace.

He had opened up to me
when he first reached out to me

about how
he felt like the weird kid.

Nick was just realizing
his sexuality or who he was.

That was a big part
of why I connected with him,

because we were
both not straight,

and I kind of let him in
with my friends.

- How do I do this?

- I don't know. Ask her.

- How is it?

- But he didn't really talk
about his school to us much.

I feel like he kind of felt
embarrassed that Indian Hills

was a continuation school.

- The very first time
I saw Nick,

he actually
didn't even see me yet.

I was going to my next class,
and then--

some of the teachers
always keep their doors open,

like, especially the art room,
and he was in the art class.

I looked inside, and I just
saw him with his head down.

And then it looked
like there was, like,

just a bunch of purple
on his lip,

and I remember thinking,
"Well, that's strange."

Later, I was, like, in class,
and then, all of a sudden,

you see, like,
an ambulance pulling up.

Everyone's like,
"What the heck is going on?"

"Oh, the new kid
just got picked up

because he's drunk at school."

Some of the kids were saying
really, like, mean words

about his sexuality,

which they couldn't
even confirm.

They were just talking
about the way he was dressed.

They were like, "Do you see
what that kid was wearing?

Like, he looks like
a blah, blah, blah."

You know?

Just, like,
bad, bad, bad words.

- Ow.

[kids laughing]

- Oh, my God, there's a stick.

- Kick him in the balls.

Come on, let's kick
him in the balls.

- He would take
the trolley home,

and the trolley stop was
on the way to my house,

so we ended up walking together
every day after school.

So one day, I was like,

"Do you wanna come over
for a little bit,

and then you can take
the next trolley?"

And he was like,
"Yeah, I would love to."

We go to my room,
and on my desk,

I would always, like, paint
my nails,

so I had, like, all
these different nail polishes,

and then also, I loved
to, like, tag on my desk.

He, like, started to paint
his nails.

[soft music]

And I remember just feeling
like, "Oh, this guy--

this kid is so, like, sweet."

After that point,
we were best friends.

♪ ♪

If we weren't together,
we were on the phone.

And if we weren't
on the phone, we were texting.

It was, like, always
very codependent relationship.

You know, Nick played
a huge role for me,

like, showing me a lot
of new tips and tricks

on how to be, like, a queen.

- Oh, okay.
- He taught me how to contour.

I remember he kind of
filled in my eyebrows

and kind of did
around my nose and my cheeks.

And also, I would do
the same for him, you know?

And I'd be like,
"Oh, your hair looks cute

"when it's skater-boy
sideswept, like that.

Like, yeah, put that hat
on like that."

It was super pure at first.

It was pure, and it was sweet.

We felt like we were

very special people
in this world.

And I finally get
to experience

where I fit in.

- Nick suddenly was
infatuated with Rachel.

The way we knew Nick was,
we were his only friends,

there wasn't other people.

He didn't have
a life outside of us.

But then he started
bringing up Rachel,

and, like, our friends
would think of her

as his bad influence friend...

- Have you met my friend?

- Who was more into partying
and cocaine

and living life on the edge
or whatever.

- Between me and Nick,
there was a darkness,

an unspoken darkness
that just kind of existed.

[music playing loudly]

This is our chauffeur.

We would all go out
with our friends.

I feel like nobody else
showed that darkness

the way that we did.

We were like,
"Okay, if you're like this

"and I'm like this,
then that must mean

we're not too far
off the rail, right?"

[frantic 2000s-era music]

♪ ♪

We didn't see any

of our other friends
as brave as us,

to do the things
that we would do.

We would, like, paint
a gun black

and wave it at people,
you know?

Like, some real twisted things.

Like really, things that
should have had us dead.

And we were just, like,
smiling, like, "Kill us.

Okay."
You know?

Like, just no fear.

♪ ♪

We started to call ourselves
Bonnie and Clyde.

We got really high off
of that,

because there was
this deep loneliness

that we both carried so much
with us

that having each other
was such a high.

Wow.
I'm freaking lucky.

Nobody in this world
has somebody

this ride-or-die for them.

Our crimes started
with us checking cars.

On the way out of a party,
we would just start

yanking on car door handles.

A lot of those doors
were open.

Sometimes we would find
money or, like, something.

Some of our friends got
a little bit, like,

"Well, I want that too.
I want to come too."

Sometimes I wouldn't
even be there.

They're like,
"Oh, we're out checking cars."

I'm like, "Thanks
for the invite, guys."

I felt FOMO'ed out.

And then I think
we just started

running out of things
to do together.

We started getting,
like, a little aggravated

with each other, too,

'cause we were together
so often.

We kept wanting to, like,
go to the next level,

go to the next level.

So then we started
to check mailboxes.

And the whole concept
behind the mailboxes was,

if the mailbox
was really full,

that means that
they're out of town.

♪ ♪

- I would always post
where I'm going to be going

on my bulletins on Myspace.

And, yeah, I just
thought nothing of that.

I felt like it was
a very innocent, normal thing

to post on social media.

When I get back
to LA from Jamaica,

I hear my mom yelling
towards my dad

about something
that had to do with money.

My parents being foreign--

a lot of people who have
parents

that weren't born in America

might be able to relate
to this,

but at the time,
they didn't really trust

the American bank system.

They kept money
in a box under the bed.

I just remember my mom,
like, looking at me

and, like, looking
really upset and distraught

and saying that someone stole
a lot of money from them.

It was something
like $28,000 in cash.

They took my mom's jewelry,
some clothes,

and it was like--

it just hit me
like a ton of bricks.

Like, "Oh, my God,
someone broke into our house

"and took that much money.

"Like, who could that
have been,

and why was our house able
to be walked into like that?"

♪ ♪

The authorities came in,
they asked questions,

they took fingerprints,
all of that,

but they didn't have a lead.

I wanted to be able to put it
together, and I tried so hard.

I had a list of people
in my head

that it could have been.

And Nick was always
at the top,

or at least the second person
on that list.

- Nick, say hello.

- But there were points
where I lowered him

on that list in my heart
because he was my friend.

- At first, we did go
into just random homes,

and then it was
celebrity after that.

[typing]

I don't want this to seem
like I'm blaming,

because it's important to me
to--

that I take the accountability,

but if we're gonna be specific,

it was when Nick
had found that website,

Celebrity Address Aerial.

It shows every single
celebrity's address.

And he said,
"I found the jackpot."

I was like, "How the hell
did you find that?"

- The first robbery
was in 2008.

That was Paris Hilton.

- I'm just hot.

- It was coming off
of "The Simple Life"

and was so entitled
and kind of looked

like she was looking down
upon people.

- I've always heard that
people hang out at Walmart.

- Why?
- I don't know.

- What is Walmart?

- She really was capitalizing

on her, like, princess-y,
high-voiced persona.

- That's hot.
- That's hot.

That's hot.
That's hot.

- Was definitely known
for her clothing,

had, like, a zillion
and a half

Juicy Couture sweatsuits.

- Paris Hilton in Uggs
holding Tinker Bell.

That's, like, the avatar
in my head.

I used to have a really big
fascination with Paris Hilton.

Eden Hilton was the Myspace
name that I went by.

I had a internet sister
named Amor Hilton,

and we would just pretend
to be related to the Hiltons

and make little vlogs
for my YouTube.

Yes.
We're the Hiltons.

Leave us alone.

- Geez.

- What did you get?
- Diamonds.

- Hello, Paris.

- Her lifestyle was, like,
"I'm gonna just get paid

for being myself."

And I always looked at that.
and I was, like, "Wow.

I strive to be
like that one day."

- The reason they
chose Paris first

was because she had
so much shit

that she would never notice.

- To me,
it was just a sure shot.

It's like, if you go
into a celebrity home,

most likely, you're gonna see
a lot cooler things

or nicer things.

But going up
to Paris Hilton's home,

I felt like my heart was
gonna combust out of me.

Me and Nick--
we were like, "Okay.

"Does your heart feel like it's
about to pop out of its chest?

Because mine does, too."

[breathing rapidly] "Okay.
Let's keep going."

We were, like,
cheerleading each other on.

It was because we had
each other we could do it.

- And then
kind of as a joke, like,

"Let's go to the front door.

Do you think the key is
underneath the doormat?"

- They found the key
right under the mat.

- "No way!

The key is underneath
the doormat."

- And that's how they got in.

- Being inside the home--

it was almost like
I was on a set.

It didn't seem real.

I was like,
"How is it so perfect?

"People actually live
like this?

Like, this is so lavish."

And there was
that really big fear

that they would come home.

It was like, "Get what
you fucking want,

and let's go, like, now."

There was so much stress
and anxiety behind it.

- Yeah.

But there obviously
was an adrenaline

and a thrill in there.
- Yeah.

Yeah.
I am trying my best

to just be
as honest and truthful.

I was--
so what it was for me was--

like, before the crime
was committed, anxiety.

And then when the crime
was being committed,

it was adrenaline,

and then,
when the crime was over,

I felt so high
and clear-headed.

Like, it really wakes you up.

Like, you're not,
like, sleepy at all.

And I really liked
that feeling a lot.

- ♪ There's no coming down ♪

♪ I'm high for the night ♪

♪ I'm lost in the clouds,
flashing thunder sky ♪

♪ Don't look back ♪

- They went to Paris Hilton's
house multiple times.

The first couple times,
they took small items

that would go unnoticed.

- Like a piece of clothing
or a purse, or coke or weed.

One particular time,
we found a lot of cocaine--

a lot.

And we didn't go
to bed that night.

We stayed up all night,
and we just were coked out.

[engine revving]

♪ Don't look back ♪

♪ I'll cross that line ♪

♪ Can't get back
that stolen time ♪

♪ Don't look back,
I crossed the line ♪

♪ Summer rain ♪

- The whole time, I was just
numbing myself out on Xanax.

It wasn't ideal for me to go
a whole day

without taking at least,
like, a quarter,

and so I always had
at least one bar on me.

- And what did it feel like
when you didn't have it?

- [sighs]

I would fight with everybody,
mostly my family.

[water splashing]
- [laughs]

Aw, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[laughs]

[dog collar rattling]

- Hello.

Hi, Dad.

Hi, Shuna.

You are such a cutie.

Do you want to jump in, Dad?

- No.
- Do you want to go in?

My dad always had
my back, no matter what.

But back then,
I didn't appreciate that.

I just put onto my family
that label of "broken family."

[camcorder whirring]

[moody music]

♪ ♪

- When Rachel was young,
sometimes I just happened

to walk with their mom.

Then, because we divorced,

we walked together,

but we have some distance,

and always Rachel in the middle

and take my hands

and take the other hand
with her mom

and walking together.

And sometimes,
she, like, sneak out

and, you know,
take my right hand

and my ex-wife's left hand
together

and she just sneak out.

I lived with Rachel's mom
3 1/2 years.

But during
those 3 1/2 years,

I filed three times divorce.

It was a crazy process,
but finally, it ended.

I raised Rachel and her sister
with my parents in Seattle.

- My grandma--she was just,
like, the epitome

of the most perfect grandma.

She was always smiling,
and my grandma is my idol.

- When Rachel was
eight years old,

somehow I failed managing
my financial structure.

I'm, like,
a professional poker player,

and I'm
a professional, like, gambler.

But maybe this is not
considered as a profession,

but that's what I did.

And I had some hardship,

so I surrendered my kids,

and I asked her mom
to take care of them.

- I always told myself
this story that my dad left me,

and he was an alcoholic
and he was a gambler,

and that
he didn't really love me.

I couldn't understand
why it was happening to me.

- I have felt always guilty.

I just didn't have
a proper financial condition

to live with them,
so I surrendered.

I thought they could be raised

at a better environment
in Calabasas.

The record shows it was not.

[moody rock music]

- I didn't like my world.

Going into a celebrity home
and trying on their stuff,

I was able to live
in their world.

- Socialite Paris Hilton
is said to be distraught

after a burglar
ransacked her LA bedroom.

Police say the thief made off

with about $2 million
in jewelry.

- More celebrities
added to a list of victims

in a string of
high-profile burglaries in LA.

- Audrina Patridge, a regular

on the reality series
"The Hills."

- Former star
of "The OC," Rachel Bilson.

- They studied
when these young celebrities

would be home or not based on
what they saw on "TMZ."

- You know, the social media
of the celebrities.

Seeing, like,
where were they?

Did Paris have
a club appearance in Dubai?

Like, was Audrina going
to Vegas

for, like, the opening
of Tau or something?

They'd be like, "Okay,

"this person's gonna be
out of town.

This might be an opening for us
to go scope out their house."

- I have to give them
credit for that.

I don't think that there was
any other case before them

that used social media.

- Surprisingly, you can feel
energy of a person.

You can feel
when somebody is in a home.

When I took their stuff,
it was an instant feeling

of, like, "Ooh, I'm powerful."

And then,
once we actually step foot

out of the house,
then, all of a sudden,

there was
that huge sense of relief.

"Oh, thank God.
We got away.

It's over."

Then we would
just do it again.

♪ ♪

- By this point,
they got more players involved.

- There was Courtney Ames.

- I really wanted
to be friends with her

because she was known in school
to be the badass.

She was always, like,
the girl in high school

I was kind of intimidated by
'cause I was like,

"I'll never be cool enough
to be her friend."

- Also, Diana Tamayo,
who was close to Rachel Lee.

- She was somebody
who actually works so much,

and she's in high school

and taking care
of her brothers

and her family,

and I, you know,

just kind of led her
down that road.

[electronic music]

♪ ♪

- These other players
wanted in

because they were all friends,

and so they joined in
on other burglaries.

- Through them,
there were two men

who were brought
into the situation.

That was Roy Lopez
and Johnny Ajar.

- Courtney Ames was a waitress
at the Sagebrush Cantina.

- She knew Roy through work,

and she kind of told him,

"Well, hey, I've got
this thing going on.

Do you want in?"

He said, "Yes, I want in."

- And they're supposed
to help sell off the things

that the kids stole
from the house.

So Rachel and Nick
looped in these other people.

Then they have
this tangential friend,

Alexis Neiers.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

This girl, like, loves
going out to clubs.

She's working as a model.

She's hanging out
with her, like, quasi-sister,

friend, Tess Taylor.

Tess and Alexis
and Nick become close.

Rachel was not
pleased about it.

- He actually met
Alexis through me,

'cause my friend's boyfriend's
best friend's girlfriend

was Alexis.

So she was always around.

Nick ended up
clicking with Alexis

and then just started hanging
out, like, on their own.

I was not included
in these things,

and I was really jealous
that Nick

was gaining a new best friend.

She had, like, blue eyes
and, like, pretty hair,

and she's so cute.

And I felt like, I guess
I'm that disposable, huh,

where you can just drop me

and choose these other girls

because you felt like they
were cooler than me?

But when we were stealing,

me and Nick were
still on each other's team.

We were still Bonnie and Clyde.

We're in this together.

When the group got bigger,
all of a sudden,

it went from it being
just me and him

to more of a liability.

It felt very dangerous.

And I, at that point,
really felt--

I was like, "This is bad."

- It's hard to understand--
like, if it was so bad

and it was always so scary,

why do you think you went back
time and time again?

- [sighs] Well, you know,

I really liked Xanax.

One of the effects
that it had on me was that it--

that part when I'm high
gets super fuzzy.

- What we saw,
evidentiary-wise,

it was not
a drug-motivated crime

or crime spree.

- We like to fill in answers
that we don't know.

You want to think there
must be a good reason,

there must be something going
on, it's not their fault.

It's their house,
it's their childhood,

it's mental illness
for drug addiction.

But lots of kids grow up

with way more difficult
circumstances than they did.

I grew up with more difficult
circumstances than they did.

And so to say,
"Oh, well, you know,

she came
from divorced parents"

or whatever--no.

I think it's really simple.
I do.

I think that they wanted stuff
that they couldn't afford,

and they weren't willing
to work hard to get it.

- I don't know.
You know?

Stealing can be
a compulsive behavior,

just like an eating disorder
is really about control.

They had drug problems,
using prescription drugs.

There was a different
mental process going on

than simply, "I want
what Paris Hilton has."

These were troubled kids.

They were not part
of the mainstream.

The racism, the homophobia
even in this privileged place--

it was, in some ways,
worse than anywhere else.

And they wanted, somehow,
desperately to be normal.

- Everyone, I think,
had a different reason

why they were doing it.

And for me, it was--

like, honestly,
when I started watching

those Fast and Furious,
Ocean's 11 movies,

I really just, like--

I was like--"Icon.
I want to be that."

You know?
I don't know why.

I don't know why I thought
like that, but I did.

- Pirates of the Caribbean
star Orlando Bloom

had some
of his real treasure stolen.

Police say someone broke
into his Hollywood Hills home

yesterday.

The thief got away
with jewelry and cash.

Orlando Bloom, though,
was not home

at the time of the break-in.

- The cops said
it was not, like,

a professional operation.

It wasn't, like, some
Mission Impossible shit

with, like, no fingerprints
or something like that.

But no one was, like,
"Maybe it's these teenagers."

- Whoa, what?

- Once the kids got
the items, some of them

were kind of brazen with them.

Like, they'd wear them
and be like,

"Yeah, I just got this
at Paris's house."

- What's the fun
of being able to get

into Paris Hilton's house
if you can't tell somebody?

Like, "Hey,
I've been in there.

I've been in there twice.

I've been in there
three times."

- ♪ Got that money ♪

- It was so irresistible
that you're overcoming

your own instinct
for self-preservation.

They would be wearing items
that were stolen

and posting it
on social media.

- Other items were sold,
like, on Venice Beach.

- I never sold anything.

I gave a lot of stuff away.
I did.

- What was the--what was
the Venice Beach thing?

Was that anything?

- Oh.
That one--that--that--

Okay, yes.
Then we did sell.

I did sell some--that was--
that was that time, yes.

I think I came up
with the idea, actually.

I was like, "What if we
just, like, went to Venice

and just opened up a carpet

and just, like, 20 bucks,
everything?

People were flocking.

And they were like,
"What's that?

"What's this?
What's that? What's this?"

And we were just, like,
"It's fake, it's real.

Take it if you want it."

We sold everything
in less than 15 minutes.

- ♪ What's
in that Louis bag? ♪

♪ Ooh, can I touch? ♪

♪ Got that ♪

♪ Got that money in the bank ♪

♪ Got that money ♪

♪ Got that money in the bank ♪

♪ Got that ♪

- One day,
somebody texted me.

And they said, "Holy shit,
I think I see you on 'TMZ.'"

[tense music]

- There was
surveillance footage

from Audrina Patridge
that was run on TMZ,

and everyone would see
these videos.

- I called Nick, and I was
like,

"Oh, my God, go to 'TMZ.'

"Like, shit, bro.
Like, this is bad.

"We're surrounded by menaces.

Like, somebody's
gonna rat us out."

And I was just like,
"What do I do?"

And so I call my dad.

- I knew she's gonna get
caught sooner or later.

So I wanted to cut

the relationship
with those friends

by relocating her from LA
to Las Vegas.

- Rachel Lee's dad lived
in Las Vegas,

and she had, you know,
went there--

fled there soon after things
started unraveling.

[tranquil music]

- My dad got me
out of that area,

away from those people.

He told me to go to college,

like, try to start a new life.

Just stay out of sight.

But there was
one particular night

that my friends called me.

And they said,
"Let's go steal."

And I was all the way
in Vegas, and I said,

"I'll be there in four hours."

I was so manipulative, and I--

me and my dad--

we smoked together.

I am blessed to be able
to smoke weed with my dad.

But we were smoking together,
and I purposely rolled us,

like, a really big joint

so I could get him super high

and just knock him out.

And I just remember

we were, like,
hanging out on the couch,

like, watching Korean drama,

and then I just sparked up
the joint,

and we were smoking.

After his first puff,

he put it down.
He said, "I'm done."

And I said, "Let's finish it."

And he said,
"You smoke too much.

He's like, "You don't
need to smoke so much.

"Just enjoy.

"Just take one little
and just enjoy it.

Like, why do you have
to get so high-high?"

And I told my dad,
"Hey, I'm gonna go to LA,

and I'm gonna just go
with my friends."

And he looked at me.

I will never forget.

His eyes got so big.

It's really hard to get, like,
a reaction out of my dad.

He doesn't raise his voice,
but I remember,

his voice got so loud,
and he just yelled, "No!

No!"

And I--I kind of played
off that card of--

I wanted him to feel crazy.

And so I was like,
"All right, dude."

Like, "You're tripping."
You know?

Like, "Calm down."

And I was like, "All right,
I'm gonna go."

- I tried to stop her,

but I didn't know
how to persuade

or how to change her mind.

- I got my things,
and I remember taking Xanax,

and I left.

It really sounds psychotic,
but I still felt that FOMO.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I remember pulling up,
and Nick was there.

The stakes were so high,

because there was
already surveillance of us.

And at this point,
we were, like,

just on that actual edge.

And I think there was a part
of me that was like,

"I'm going to finish strong."

- What you're watching
is surveillance video

inside actress
Lindsay Lohan's home.

Lohan is just one
of ten victims

of the burglars' almost
year-long crime spree

targeting the homes

of Hollywood's young
and famous.

- The surveillance video
from Lindsay Lohan's house

alerted the cops.

- Because you can see
the commonalities

in Audrina's
and Lindsay's footage.

- But even when they were
caught on surveillance,

I mean, that alone
would not have been enough.

They were wearing hoodies.

They had their head down.

Really, what put all the pieces
together was Nick Prugo.

[soft guitar music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Is this friendship
complicated love? ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Hopes and heartbreak
just falls down to one ♪

- Shortly after
the Lindsay Lohan surveillance

was released, me and Nick
decided to meet up,

and I got in his car,
into the passenger seat.

I said to him,

"This is really bad,
what's happening to us.

This is really, really bad."

And I was like, "I don't know
what's gonna happen to us."

And I remember I put my hand
on his shoulder,

and I said,
"But I love you so much.

I'll never betray you."

And then, like,
within 24 hours,

I saw all over the news,

Nick Prugo went
to the police station

and did a full confession,
brought in all the property.

♪ ♪

- Nick was willing
to just tell us everything.

- He just basically
gives them

not only the crimes
they were looking at,

but every other crime.

- Now authorities say
Brian Austin Green, Megan Fox,

and Ashley Tisdale
were also victimized.

- He kind of walked us
through every single burglary

and who was there with him.

- Courtney.

I got you.
Thank you.

Here, Courtney.

- Who planned it?

Is Nick running the ring?

- Did you do it?

- No, I didn't do it for Nick.

I didn't do jack shit.

- Did Nick trick you into it?

[reporters asking questions]

- He was betraying everybody,

but I was still sure
he would protect me.

I was in Las Vegas
with my dad at the time

and my grandmother.

Nick called me in the morning.

After his confession,

I know
that it doesn't make sense

to talk to him,
but me and Nick

were still best friends.

I remember when I answered
the phone,

it wasn't our usual vibe.

It felt weird.

Because what he had said was,

"Oh, I was thinking
about something,

"and I totally forgot
your dad's street address.

What was the street name
called again?"

And I was like, "Oh, okay."

And I said it,
and he was like, "Oh, yeah.

That's right.
That's what it was."

He's like, "Oh, yeah.
I just wanted to know."

And he was like, "Okay,
anyways I'll call you later."

I was like, "All right, bye."

Like, "Have a good day."

As I was saying,
that I just saw black, black,

black, black, black,
black, black,

and then pounding on the door.

Nick betrayed me.

The door swung open as if
it was, like, a bomb squad,

and there were so many of them
just piling into the house.

The first guy that came in,
like, grabbed the dog

and kind of, like,
kicked the dog.

And I remember--

I usually--
I'm not a violent person.

I'm really not.

But I like kind of, like,
charged him a little bit.

I was like, "Don't touch
my dog like that."

The whole time, like, they
were just tossing the house.

They were going
through my dad's stuff.

They took $20,000 in cash.

- That was my money.

That was
my gambling seed money.

- They took
my grandma's fur coat

because they thought it was,
like, Lindsay Lohan's.

They were trying to talk
to my grandma.

I said, "She can't
speak English.

Don't speak to her."

And she says to me in Korean,
[speaking Korean]

She said,
"I don't like these people.

Don't say anything to them."

And then finally, they found
a ripped-up photo in--

they found a ripped-up photo
of Paris Hilton naked

in my bathroom trash can.

The cops all were so happy.

They're like,
"Whew, we got her.

Got the evidence we needed."

The detective said to me, "This
is a game of musical chairs.

"And we've already talked
to all your friends,

and you're the only one
without a chair."

- Rachel Lee was arrested

on warrants from California
yesterday.

- One of Lee's
co-defendants says

that she was the one
who suggested

which celebrities to target.

- Lee is now facing
charges in Las Vegas

of possessing stolen property

and charges of burglary
in Los Angeles.

[both speaking indistinctly]

- I think a lot of my peers

would have wanted the case.

Everybody was interested
in trying big cases,

media cases,

cases that show that the office
trusted you as an attorney.

- I did not wanna take it

because it was gonna be a mess.

- They decided
to assign me the case.

- Can you tell us about
the prosecution's positioning?

- Well, it was
the people's position

that we always encourage
disposition of cases.

We're always open to--

I knew that because
of the media attention,

there would be more scrutiny
both outside of the office

and within the office
from my supervisors.

I had to be more careful
about what I talked about

in terms of the case,
and where I talked about it.

- Yeah, so we can't talk
about those,

so that's all for now.

- First step is
always to contact the IO,

the investigating officer,
and talk

about the investigation.

- Who was the investigating
officer assigned?

- Brett Goodkin.

- Officer Brett Goodkin

has worked
the LAPD's Hollywood station

for six years.

- Officer Brett Goodkin
investigated the Bling Ring.

- Is there some aspect of this
that this burglary crew

targeted these people
because of a fascination

with celebrity--you know,
there's absolutely that.

- Brett Goodkin,
the lead investigator,

was just willing to blab.

As a reporter,
it's not my job to tell

Brett Goodkin to shut up.

Keep on talking, buddy.

I love this.

- He was
the detective in charge

of the whole investigation.

- The charges range
from residential burglary

to felon in possession
of multiple firearms.

- I had no contact

with any celebrities
up until this point.

I didn't know
how the world worked.

I had never dealt
with victims

who had personal assistants

who then had
personal assistants.

And I was like, "Wait,
I need to talk to the victim.

"I need to talk to the victim.

I can't talk
to their assistant."

- How much contact
with celebrities

is, like, part of that job?

- It's a big part of the job.

- I deferred a lot
to my investigating officer

who had had contact with them
in order to have them identify

stolen property, et cetera,
and tried to communicate

as much as I could through him.

- She really did have to deal
with a lot of stupid bullshit.

But it was not a bad case.
It was a strong case.

There was a lot of evidence
that we found and recovered.

- Based on Nick's statement,

they found stolen property

in the homes
of the defendants.

- I mean, millions of dollars'
worth of items.

[swaggering music]

♪ ♪

- Chanel costume jewelry,
necklaces,

scarves, stuff like that.

- A shitload
of clothing and shoes.

- Rolex watches
from Orlando Bloom's house.

- Jewelry from
Lindsay Lohan's house.

- Marc Jacobs purses.

A gun from
Brian Austin Green's house.

- They went
into Paris Hilton's house,

and they basically
just cleared,

like, a jewelry shelf.

- People were obsessed.

Like, the courthouse
in downtown LA

where these kids would show up,

every single appearance
was swarmed

with television cameras
from legitimate news outlets,

and then celebrity
news outlets like "TMZ."

- Are you gonna make
a deal, Rachel, or what?

- How does it feel to be a rat?

- It's just like--
it's a shit show.

- Courtney, can
we see the tattoo?

What'd you get?
- It's LA, baby.

These kids want to be famous.

- Well, I'm definitely sorry
for what I've done.

I'm trying to take early
responsibility of my crimes--

- Nick Prugo kept
appearing on the news.

- We, you know, thought,

"These people are celebrities.
They have everything."

- Alexis Neiers was,
like, filming her show.

- Coming up
on "Pretty Wild"...

- I'm sorry, Alexis.

We're going to have to pull
you from LA Fashion Week.

- [crying]

- She was in the midst
of this reality show--

- "Pretty Wild,"
which is supposed to be

a reality show following

a fun, unconventional family
in Hollywood.

- Let's do the frequency
machine on you.

- As they're filming
the pilot,

all of this Bling Ring stuff

is coming out in the news,

and Alexis
is getting arrested.

- Finally.
- Are you all right?

How did you do it?
- I am not good.

- So the show just became
appointment television.

Like, you wanted to see that.

- Hi, guys.
- Hi, honey.

- I went shopping today.

- She was a character
that people were familiar with

almost as much as Audrina

or other reality stars
that she was robbing.

- You and Tess, it seems like--
you have a kind of a--

I mean, the kind of life
that a lot of teenagers

just kind of dream
about having.

- At the end of the day,
we are so wholesome

and down to earth.

- Nancy Jo Sales,

who was
a writer for "Vanity Fair,"

was writing a story
about the Bling Ring case,

and Alexis Neiers was sort
of her, like, big interview.

The headline was,

"The Suspects
Wore Louboutins,"

and there's this picture
of Alexis

looking glamorous and stuff.

- Give me the magazine.

- I got the issue.

This is the issue
you girls are in.

Whoo!
- No way.

This is so cool.

- In a scene
on "Pretty Wild,"

they open the magazine,
and instantly,

like, tears are just flowing.

- She thought I was wearing
6-inch Louboutins

to court with my tweed outfit.

I wasn't wearing Louboutins.

I was wearing
little brown kitten heels,

[bleep] bitch.

- She got hung up
on this detail

that Nancy Jo Sales had written

that when she was in court,

she wore 6-inch Louboutins,

when in fact, she had just worn

little Bebe Chu kitten heels.

- [sniffling] Nancy Jo?

This is Alexis Neiers calling.

- She calls up Nancy Jo Sales
on speakerphone.

The whole family is,
like, sitting around her.

They're crying,
and she's like,

"Nancy Jo, I'm just calling

to let you know
how disappointed I am."

And then--
and the family's like,

"Yeah, we're disappointed!"
And she's like, "Mom, stop!

"Every time you start,
I have to start over!

"Nancy Jo, I'm just
calling to let you know

how disappointed I am..."

- I am in your story.

- It was just so ridiculous.

- Have a nice life.
Goodbye.

- I got the details
of who broke into my house

from that "Vanity Fair"
article.

There was an interview
with Nick in which he admits

that he broke
into a friend's house

in the summer of tenth grade,
and that was it for me.

After reading it,
I felt crazy.

That, to me, was like, "Okay.

Like, I gotta take him down
somehow, but I don't know how."

I hit up all these, like--

like, newscasters
and journalists that I felt

would take my story somehow.

I hit up Ellen DeGeneres,
John Quinones

from "What Would You Do,"
but I was not a famous person.

It definitely bothered me a lot

when I would see,
like, photos of Nick

and, like,
the Bling Ring crew on "TMZ."

- I just really can't
comment, I'm sorry.

- Okay, can you at least
tell me

who your favorite actress is?

- Um, Angelina Jolie.

- Angelina Jolie.
- She's gorgeous, yeah.

- Okay, but she's not next
on the list, is she?

- Honestly, guys, like,
I didn't really even--

I barely knew Nick,
and I didn't really know

anyone else that was involved.

- Alexis, I think--
she, in people's minds,

is the Bling Ring because
she was on "Pretty Wild."

I think people knew her
much more than they knew

even Nick Prugo.

But she actually had, like,

fairly little involvement
in the end.

- Ms. Neiers is
charged with a felony,

commonly known as first-degree
residential burglary,

of Orlando Bloom's residence.

Do you understand
the charge against you?

- Yes.

- She's not someone who was
going to every burglary.

- It was thought that she was
one of the least culpable

of the Bling Ring.

- I--I can't speak for Alexis

because she knows
what she's done.

- Lead pursuant
to People versus--

- She pled out early,

and she was done
with her case.

- How does she plead?

- No contest.

- And you understand
your no contest plea

will be treated the same
as a guilty plea by the judge,

and he will find you guilty
based upon your plea?

- [whispers] Yes.
- Yes.

- Alexis got probation
and 180 days in county jail.

Johnny Ajar also was
split off from the case

because his case involved
his own other priors.

All the remaining defendants,
their case is still open.

- Please.
Come on.

- Every court date, people
were approaching me,

wanting to talk.

My mom, being a lawyer--
she was like,

"Just don't say anything.

"You have to understand
that this is something

that could be very dangerous."

That is definitely
where it changed for me.

That rebellious side
of me disappeared.

I became very submissive,

and I was just doing
exactly what I was told.

Keep quiet.

But that also meant
I couldn't defend myself.

- Nick Prugo is
the kind of shy kid

who could live on your street.

That is, until he meets
a young woman

who changed his life forever:

his best friend
Rachel Lee, whom he says

is the mastermind
behind the Bling Ring.

- In the media,
that word, "mastermind,"

just kept coming up.

Like, mastermind,
Rachel Lee, mastermind,

and people were calling me
the ringleader.

The defendants that
actually decided to talk

started to create
that narrative.

- When it actually
came time to do it,

I'd always have to have Rachel
lead or, you know, help me.

- And how would
she convince you?

- She would just go,
and I'd follow.

- How often would you guys
plan a new mark?

- Whenever
we'd run out of money,

or if Rachel wanted
a new outfit.

I was really genuinely scared,
and Rachel's just, like,

going back and forth
in the rooms,

checking, like, grabbing
clothes for herself.

And, you know--
- Wow,

like, Rachel's such a bitch.

She, like, ruined
this kid's life.

And--as if I was, like,
forcing these people

to do these things.

And I'm like, what?

Like, what the hell?

Like, when did this
get so twisted?

Like, when did this get so--

how did this get
so, like, out of hand?

You know?

The more and more I saw him,

the more I felt
like I really didn't know him.

In court, my attorney told me,

just look down and act
like he's not there.

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

- In the office,
we decided to take

this case to the grand jury...

- Which meant that she had
to put on live witnesses.

So she did have to deal
with all the handlers

to bring the celebrities in,

like, through the back
of the courtroom

and have them testify.

"TMZ" covered it
pretty extensively.

- Are you gonna recover
all your jewelry?

- Not everything.

- How much do you think
they should do in jail?

How much jail time?

- Ten years.

- Have you ever been robbed?

- I haven't,
but the night is young.

[laughter]

- Yeah, I've had
my innocence robbed, too.

But I--no, I, um--

it's a really awful thing
to have happen to you.

So--but at the same time--

- The concern was, they
would not be sympathetic,

given their wealth.
You know.

These are celebrities who--

they don't feel comfortable
or safe

or like they have
any private life

probably anywhere
but their homes,

and then to have somebody
in that home

felt like such an invasion
of their space.

And having talked
to the victims

really solidified
that idea in my mind,

that that is really the crime
that was committed here,

that taking away
of that safe space for them.

- Rachel Bilson
and Lindsay Lohan, too,

I think, moved
out of those houses

and never felt safe
in those houses again.

You know, it's amazing to me

that the narrative
still persists of, like,

"Well, you asked for it.

"If you decide to be
a celebrity,

"you know
what you're walking into.

"If you're rich
and you're famous, then, like,

you get--and you have
to take everything."

- It's very violating.

It's not
about the material things

and the things that they took,
because that comes and goes.

- When the burglary
happened to me,

I felt really bad
for my parents

even more than I felt
for myself, especially my mom.

Like, that was
the moment where a lot changed

when it comes
to my mom's anxiety,

and they did blame me.

- Not 'til next year.

- Not 'til--hey.
- Wait.

- You didn't tell me.

- They brought up
that if it wasn't

for me being on Myspace

or putting my whole life
out there on YouTube,

that this wouldn't happen.

I did start
to internalize that guilt,

and then I projected it out
into anything that I could

by being the angry,
non-trusting person.

- Ultimately the grand jury
indicted all the targets

of all the charges.

- How does Mr. Prugo plead?

- He'll plead not guilty.

- Diana Tamayo?

- Not guilty, Your Honor.

- Roy Lopez?

- Not guilty, Your Honor.

Deny any and all
special allegations.

- Thank you.
And Courtney Ames?

- Not guilty.

- Not guilty pleas
will be given--

- Soon after the indictment,
I transferred

out of central trials eleven.

I transferred to the gang unit
and left the case.

- I got the case
post grand jury

with Nick Prugo, Rachel Lee,
Courtney Ames,

Roy Lopez, and Diana Tamayo.

It was a great case.

Sarika--she did great.

She had a lot
of physical evidence

of high dollar value.

We just needed to get all
that sorted

about what was taken
from where and when.

- That was
a little complicated

because there was word

that there was potentially
items we couldn't find

in Las Vegas because they had
been buried in the desert

by Rachel Lee's dad.

- I asked my dad,
"If you were trying

to get rid
of stolen property"--

I just wanted--I like
to know people's psyches.

I just like to know.

And I asked him,
"What would you do

"if you had a bunch
of stolen stuff?

What would you do with it?"

And he said, "I would bury it
in the middle of the desert."

And then Nick twisted
that into,

"Oh, Rachel's dad said to bury
everything in the desert."

- You know, the best way
I can describe it

is like, word on the street,

because we weren't able
to prove it.

But some neighbors of her dad
had said they'd seen him

doing something
out in the desert.

And so the speculation
was that he had been out there

burying some items of property

that were never recovered.

[percussive music]

♪ ♪

- As a parent, I want
that they don't get caught.

You better get rid
of all the things, evidence.

And my name was quoted
on the publicity.

I was not related
to the concealment of the goods

or whatever, but I was the--

I became the person who could
be asked about that matter.

So I just gave up
all the business I was doing,

and just I disappeared.

I stayed in Korea
for three years.

♪ ♪

- The first deal--

they offered me 11 years.

And I remember being
in the lawyer's office,

and he told me that,
and my mom--

she was sitting in the chair,

literally having
a heart attack.

She was like, "11 years?
That's impossible.

Like, she's only 18 years old.
Like, how could this be?"

And in my mind I'm like,
"But I committed crime."

Like, you can't just,

because I grew up in Calabasas

or because that was
my first crime,

that I don't deserve
to pay for it.

Calculating my age,
I was like, "All right.

"18 plus 11.
All right.

"That means I'll be, like--

I'll still be young
when I come out."

I was like, "All right."
My attorney was like, "Oh, no.

Like, we're gonna get you
something better than that."

And I was like, "Well,
if that's my cards,

those are my cards."

A week or two later,
my lawyer called me

back into the office.

He said, "They're
offering you four years.

And I said, "Okay."

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

This is the moment
I've been running from

since I was 14.

This is the moment.
It's actually here.

When the judge sentenced me,
I felt the thud in my heart,

like, at the same time
she did that.

And I was like,
"Oh, the luck has run out."

Like, that--this is
some real shit right here.

- You know what you did,
and you know

if what you did was worth
four years or not.

Rachel, I think,
was maybe the smart one.

I don't know.
She just--

"I'm not going
to get involved in this."

She took her time,

she took it like a man,
and she left.

- Or like a woman.
- Or like a woman.

There we go.

- Rebecca Ahn,
you are found guilty

on four counts of first-degree
residential burglary.

You are sentenced
to four years in state prison

and $800,000.

- There are still a number
of kids in the Bling Ring case

who have yet to be sentenced.

Sofia Coppola decides

this is such
a fascinating story

that she is gonna turn it
into a feature film.

They start filming this in LA.

And since I've been kind
of, like, writing about it,

I ask if I can do a set visit.

So they invite me to set,

they let me talk
to Sofia Coppola

for a little bit,
and I'm like, "Okay,

"so I heard that you're paying
Alexis Neiers

as a consultant on this movie."

And that was something
I was interested in,

because obviously,
people might find it

problematic that
she's literally, like,

profiting off of her crime.

So I asked Sofia Coppola,
what was Alexis like,

and has she been helpful?

And she was like, "Yeah,
you know, she's been helpful,

but who's been really helpful
is Brett Goodkin."

- Fascination
with celebrity--

yeah, there's absolutely that.

- And I was like,
"The LAPD cop?"

And she was like, "Yeah.
He's a technical advisor.

"He's, like, a consultant
for us on the movie.

"And, like, he actually did
a cameo the other day.

"He came in,
and he, like, slapped

the cuffs on Emma Watson."

- Get her back.
- Please stop.

- I need you to stop that.

- I need to speak to my mom.

- What you're doing
with my daughter--

- I called him up,
and he told me,

you know, "Listen,
I just advised

"on, like, procedural stuff.

"Yes, I did do a cameo.

It's not
like I'm Bruce Willis."

And he said he got
$5,000 or $6,000.

He couldn't even remember.

I called the LAPD.

I called the DA's office.

- I got a call from
the "LA Times" asking me,

"How do you feel
about your detective working

on the Sofia Coppola
'Bling Ring' case?"

We had no idea.

We made a speakerphone call
to Detective Goodkin

to ask if this was the case.

He initially denied.

We told him we got a call
from the "LA Times."

"Oh, yeah.
I am working,

"but I'm not really
getting paid that much.

I'm just kind of"...

You know, the defense attorneys
subpoenaed

the payroll records

from Sofia Coppola's
production company.

- Turns out he actually got,
like, $12,500,

and he had not disclosed
that to the LAPD,

and he had also not
disclosed it to the DA.

- You cannot go and work
on a film about some crimes

while that case is still open.

It's like the vortex of fame.

Kids with no criminal records
wanting to go

and break into these, you know,
celebrity homes,

my detective who wants to be
famous or whatever.

As the detective,
you're supposed to be

the person that's gonna be
on the stand a lot

during trial.

Your credibility
is very important.

And once you've lied
to the DA,

that credibility is shot.

So he obviously
was not gonna be able

to testify at trial.

- When I found out
what had been occurring

behind the scenes
with Brett Goodkin

and how that affected the case,
I was disappointed for sure,

because when I left
the case, it was like,

everything was going according
to plan the way it should.

- Everyone would have gotten
a state prison offer,

but for the fact
that Brett Goodkin

kind of blew this case up.

Sorry, Brett.

We had to let all
the defense attorneys know.

- The judge told them,

"You guys should write
Brett Goodkin

"a thank you-note,
because pretty much,

he just reduced
your punishment majorly."

- In the end, Nick got
two years' state prison,

and everybody else
just got probation.

- They got the better end
of the stick.

And I was like, "Oh, shit.

"Like, this is twisted.

Our system is twisted."

How can I be the ringleader

when I never even met Roy
in person?

Or how can I be the ringleader
when me and Alexis

weren't even friends?

- I don't know.
I don't have a lot of sympathy.

- And police say
alleged ringleader Rachel Lee

is wearing a necklace
stolen from Rachel Bilson.

- Nick Prugo
wasn't the only one to say

that this was really--
really Rachel-Lee-driven.

And in one of the videos,
at least,

it appears that
she's sort of the one

that Nick's trailing behind.

This started with Rachel Lee,
and Nick Prugo went along.

- Of course, we weren't there,
so we're not sure.

Was it Rachel's idea?
Was it Nick's idea?

- Because Rachel stayed
out of the limelight

and could not refute the idea
that she was the ringleader,

it just persisted.

- When people think
"Rachel Lee,"

they think "ringleader."

- I know.
- And so it's--

- I know.

- It's kind of, like,
never been disproven.

Right?
- Yeah.

- I don't buy
that Rachel pressured Nick

into doing anything.

I could understand
how that story

would work out for him.

But he was
an independent person.

He'll do something
if he wants to do something.

If he didn't want to do that,
he would have said,

"Let's not do this."

- You know, for a lot
of people that were involved

in the Bling Ring,
it was kind of, like,

a one-time thing for them.
You know?

And I think for me and Nick,
it was very repetitive.

So I feel like if anybody
was the ringleader,

it was me and him,
because I feel

like we did it just as much.

He and I were both
equally as aggressive

and both equally as passive.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

Right before I went to prison,

I was living with my mom
in an apartment

because she had to spend
so much money

on lawyers and everything,

so everything
got kind of downsized.

I was looking
for something in my room,

and then I pulled out
the Ziploc,

and it was probably, like,
about an inch full of Xanax.

And honestly,
still to this day,

I don't know if this is, like,
a truth or a lie,

but I took one, and then I put
the rest down the toilet.

I was like, "That's it.

You're never gonna
purchase Xanax again."

When I self-surrendered
into state prison,

we went to the guard gate

to where it was just
that typical scene

of that entrance of a prison,

with the barbed wire
on the top of the fence.

And the guard looked at me,
and he said,

"Welcome to prison."

At the time, my grandma
was in an elderly home

because when my dad
was advised to go to Korea

and he left,

there was nobody to take her.

Late at night,
a correctional officer

brought me into the office
and was like,

"Hey, you should sit down.
Like, I have something--

a mail for you,
and I already read it."

And my grandma passed away

while my dad was in Korea
and while I was in prison.

When my dad came back
for the funeral

and he came and visited me,

he said, "My mom died alone
because of you."

And I said, "I know."

And he just said to me,

"It might take me a long time
to forgive you."

And I was like, "Okay."

But he still came
and visited me,

and he still treated me
like his daughter.

♪ ♪

- When you were in a prison,
I was getting some kind

of a punishment also.

- Yeah.

- I didn't know how to tune--

how to tune your life
as a father,

because you were too indulged.

Like, in Las Vegas,

why you didn't listen to
when I say no,

when I screamed about,
like, no.

I just said, "No!"

You know?
- Mm-hmm.

- So you have to get
some kind of message

from that kind of expression.

- I think I was ignoring,

like, deliberately,
like, just ignoring.

- Because you--
you didn't have any room,

because you're
too much self-centered

with your friend.
- Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.
So let me ask you this.

From that girl back
in Las Vegas and now,

do you think I've progressed?

- Uh, I don't know.

Maybe physically,
you are kind of adjusted,

and you are going fine.

But love, happiness,
you have to develop

your own definition now.

- 30 days in jail
on a reckless driving case,

30 days in jail on the first
DUI case consecutive,

and 30 days in jail

on the second DUI case
consecutive.

That's 90 days in jail.

- The surveillance video
from the jewelry store

where Lindsay allegedly lifted
a $2,500 necklace.

- Reality TV star
Alexis Neiers,

jailed for her role

in the celebrity
Bling Ring robberies,

claims she could hear Lohan
crying in the next cell.

- Fame is often fleeting.

Celebrities are just people,
and they're as happy

and as miserable
as anybody else,

sometimes more so.

- Growing up, I myself
desperately wanted

to be famous.

And part of the reason
I went to school in LA

is because that was
when "The Hills" was on.

Living here was like the Mecca.

I could finally go
to all those places

that everyone had talked about.

And then when I got here
and I realized that, like,

even when you're here,

it's just still
a constant, like--

no one's ever satisfied.

- I grew up in LA,
but I'm not a--

I'm not struck by celebrities.

Oh, you know, can I--
I mean, look.

When Snoop Dogg shot
"Gin and Juice" near my house,

did I go and get his autograph?
I sure did.

But I otherwise was not
an autograph-getter.

That wasn't me.

I don't want to take
a picture with a celebrity.

- There are people
who actually, literally,

don't care that
there are cameras everywhere.

Um, I'm not one of them.

- Do you wanna be famous?
- Sure.

- My family, to this day,
still don't have justice.

The authorities basically
made us believe

that no matter
how we pursue this,

nothing's gonna happen,

and there was nothing
that we could do about it.

Corvette, Corvette.

It is not.

Corvette, Corvette--

I've always felt like I should
be capitalizing on this.

Corvette, Corvette.
Hop in a--

And it comes in waves
because then at times,

I feel like, if I want
to have a brand,

I don't want it to be
the professional victim.

But at the same time,

the outcome could become
a blessing

if I navigated it that way.

I have no gas and no friends.

[drumming on dashboard]

Around March 2020,
I wanted to expand

my social media
presence again,

and my videos weren't getting
that many views.

And then I realized
one day, like,

I have all these screenshots
of Nick messaging me

and, like, all this proof

that I've put
on my Facebook before

that I could just get together
and post it on YouTube,

and hopefully,
more people will see it.

I told the whole story.

Coming out of
my parent's room.

I run out of the room.

Like, "Who died?
What happened?"

And all I hear is,
"Where's the money?

Where's all the money?"
And I--

It caught on and started
getting more views, and then--

- Enter Eden Hilton.

Eden has an insane storytime
on his channel

about the Bling Ring,
and you should go watch it.

This is his story
that he told on his channel.

Them hanging out--

- More people started
reaching out to me,

and that reopened this case
for me

in such a different way
that I've never felt before.

I'm not gonna stop
until I get justice.

And if I don't get justice,
I will forever talk about it.

I don't have any bad blood
with Nick anymore,

and we've spoken recently.

And it's not like I want
his life to be ruined.

I would never let him
into my home,

but I would maybe have,
like, sushi with him

or something,
just to talk in person.

All I really ever wanted,
more than the money back

or notoriety or anything,

was for Nick and Rachel
to apologize to me.

- People were hurt,

not physically,
but emotionally,

and that's even worse.

Ugh.

It's really stressful
thinking about the past,

'cause it's so far
from where I am today.

It's quite disturbing,
actually.

- What disturbs you?

- [sighs]

I think I, honestly,
was a sociopath.

I think I honestly didn't care
about anybody or anything.

My first proud moment
came in fire camp.

- There are only 86
female prison inmates

in the entire county
who work

at Malibu Conservation Camp 13.

Now it's a joint program

of the California Department
of Corrections

and LA County Fire,

designed to help
rehabilitate inmates.

- We got to work
with LA Fire Department

and, you know, being a part
of a community.

Through fire camp
I found myself,

and I also was around women
who wanted to be better

and who wanted to make
changes in their life.

And everyone at fire camp
was empowering each other,

so it was like
the perfect last stop.

The week before I paroled,
like, before I got out,

a tradition in prison is, like,
you pass on your fortune

to the ones that, you know,
kind of took care of you

when you were there.

I took everything
that was in my locker,

and then I gave away
all the food to my friends

and, like, my body stuff,
like, face lotions,

and I just gave
all my stuff away.

And then they're like,
"Lee to the office,"

and that means, like,
you're getting out.

And so when when that happens,
when somebody paroles,

everybody lines up to the fence
where they can see you leave.

And so--and I remember all
the girls were, like, cheering.

And they were
so, like, happy for me.

And they're like, "You live
your best life, girl!"

Like, "I better not see
you here ever again,"

and, "If I see you,
I'm gonna kick your ass!"

You know?

Like, "You're dead, girl,
you're dead, Lee,

if you come back here!"

And I was like, "Stop, guys."

Like, I'm--like, stop.
You know?

And my mom and my stepdad
had, like, balloons

and, like, welcome home--

home.

[sniffling]

And then my mom was, like,
"Oh, come see your room.

Come see your room."

And I was like,
"Oh, my God, it's so cute."

Like, it was empty,

but there was, like,
a mattress on the floor,

and I had, like, my box
from prison.

And I just remembered feeling

like this is all that I need
in the world.

I don't need anything else.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- Hi.
Welcome.

- Thank you.

Oh.

- I like the color.
- Yeah.

- The color is really pretty.

- That mustard's pretty.

I've tried to make
new friends.

But I have
some trauma with friends.

[soft music]

When I look back to when Nick
and I were actually friends,

our relationship
was just crumbling

from the first day that we met.

To me, he's dangerous.

This is very extreme,
what I'm going to say,

but it is my truth.

And to be honest, I feel like
I was one of his victims.

I feel like he--

I was the perfect person

that he could just dig
his claws into and just--

You know, there is only
one scene from that movie

that I feel I'll never
be able to forget.

- I love your shirt.

- Thank you.

- When my character
is walking into school

it's, like, slow motion,

and the wind's,
like, blowing in her hair,

and Nick's character's
narrating over that scene.

And he says...

- I loved her
almost like a sister.

That's what made
this situation so hard.

- Like, "I loved
her like a sister,

"and if I could do it
all over again,

I wouldn't have hurt her."

And I just remember, like,
when I was watching

that moment,

I knew that it was
a message for me from him.

But I'll never allow him
in my life again,

no matter what.

- ♪ And it falls down ♪

[camera shutters snapping]

- Haven't you guys
got enough now?

- Excuse me.

- You know,
maybe back then,

when everyone was talking
in the media,

I didn't trust myself,

because I didn't know--

I didn't really know,
like, what was, like--

I didn't have
my story straight.

And I still don't.

There's a lot of holes
in my story.

- Do you think sometimes
you lie

accidentally or unconsciously?
- Yeah.

I--I do.
I do.

I actually catch myself
sometimes,

and they're very stupid lies.

[discordant music]

All of these members
of this group,

every single one of our truths
is truth, to thyself.

- Nick!

- Alexis.

- It's a footprint in time.

It's there forever.

But now I'm finally getting
to know who I really am.

At least, I think so.

- ♪ Temptation pulling me
today ♪

♪ Should I take
the high road? ♪

♪ Should I stay away? ♪

♪ But we here and yeah,
we on the same page ♪

♪ We feeling
for that fakeness ♪

♪ Can you listen on this ♪

♪ I knew that I
should show up ♪

♪ Own up to my compass
pulled up ♪

♪ I need to put it undone ♪

♪ So sweet,
got my pressure on up ♪

♪ I knew
that I should show up ♪

♪ Own up to my compass
pulled up ♪

♪ I need to put it undone ♪

♪ So sweet, got
my pressure on up ♪

♪ Place it on me,
stack it to the top ♪

♪ You know I like
that curvy girl ♪

♪ Body don't stop ♪

♪ Let it drop,
drop, drop, drop ♪

♪ Take it to the floor,
we ain't got house so ♪

♪ Bitch asked me for more ♪

[bright tone]