The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring (2023) Movie Script

1
[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[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
side swept, 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 com bust 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 story time
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]