The newest docuseries to hit Netflix revisits the infamous ‘Bling Ring’ and examines the events that led up to the notorious 2008 and 2009 burglaries of celebrities’ homes.
In episode one of the three-part docuseries, The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist, ring leader Nick Prugo details how he and fellow mastermind Rachel Lee got their start in illegal activities.
Prugo said, “I felt like an outcast when I moved to Calabasas because my mother drove me to school in a Honda and not a Mercedes or Range Rover. When I first met lee at school, she was popular and helped bring me out of my shell with her outgoing nature.”
In the docuseries, Prugo claims that after leaving a party with Lee one night, the pair broke into a car for the first time.
“Rachel went over to a car and pulled on this door handle, probably joking, and it opens,” Prugo says. “She was just so carefree and just so nonchalant. I was terrified. I thought we were going to get caught, like in trouble. It definitely was scary. So we ended up with all these credit cards, you know? And the next day we went shopping.”
“I had never stolen anything before in my life until that night with her, “Prugo said. “It made me feel alive and I got swept up in the habit. It gave me that confidence, and I didn’t want to give that up.”
Every time the two of them would leave a party, Prugo claims he would drive, while Lee hung out of the passenger window pulling on car doors to see if they would open. If they did, she’d search the car for valuables.
“It was always the wealthy communities and the really expensive cars that seemed to be unlocked,” Prugo says.
Prugo also revealed that the first home robbery him and Lee participated in was at the home of an old friend of his, named Eden Shizzle. Shizzle posted on MySpace that he was going on vacation with his family and Prugo saw an easy target.
Prugo claims he and Lee made out with around $8,000 from Shizzle’s parents’ safe, but when Shizzle himself appears on screen, he says it was between $30,000 and $40,000.
After their first robbery, Prugo got the idea to up the ante and rob celebrities next.
“It wasn’t like we were obsessed with these celebrities as much it was the stuff they had,” Prugo says.
“I happened to see that Paris Hilton was going to be in Miami and saw an opportunity. We had already seen into Paris Hilton’s life so much so it didn’t seem like much more of a step to enter her house,” Prugo said. “For about three months, we went to Hilton’s home multiple times. I had found a website with celebs addresses, including Hilton’s house. So we parked outside in her neighborhood and hiked up to the front door. We rang the doorbell and when no one answered, we just walked right in through the unlocked front door.”
However, after their first attempt, the second time they showed up the door was locked. However, they found the key under the mat and gained access. They then took the key with them for future robberies.
“We were constantly going to Paris’ house,” he recalled. “It was like our personal ATM. We never felt guilty about it.”
“I didn’t feel like there was a victim,” Prugo says on screen. “This woman’s worth millions of dollars. We didn’t think she’d even notice.”
Prugo and Lee would go on to rob, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Audrina Patridge. They even enlisted other members to help them in their heists, including Alexis Neiers, now Alexis Haines, who also appears in the documentary to tell her side of the story.
The remaining members, Rachel Lee, Tess Taylor, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames, and Roy Lopez, do not make appear in the docuseries.
The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist is now streaming on Netflix.
