ShortHand: The Bling Ring

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
La La Land, 2009

**SPEAKER_2** (0:16)
No. Make me.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:19)
After, okay, I will with my words. After 10 months pre, the LAPD finally caught the perpetrators behind a string of audacious burglaries, targeting A-listers including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom. The so-called Bling Ring had nabbed millions of dollars worth of designer clothes and jewelry from these people's lavish homes.
But if you're picturing a group of hardened criminals, think again. Because this was actually the handiwork of a bunch of spoiled teenagers. Want to know how and why a gang of fame-obsessed kids pulled off some of the ballsiest heists in Hollywood history? This is the frankly ridiculous ShortHand.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:00)
Let's rewind to June 2006 when 16-year-old Nick Prugo moved to the ritzy LA suburb of Calabasas, which is Kardashian land. Nick's family had always been comfortably off thanks to his film exec dad, but this was a whole new world. Kids were driving Bentleys and Nick was mortified to be seen getting picked up in his mum's Honda. To make matters worse, puberty had hit Nick like a train, taking him from a flamboyant kid with dreams of stardom to a self-conscious teen crippled by insecurities. He was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and he missed school so often that he was sent to what's called a continuation school called Indian Hills, and that is where the bad kids went. And it was there that Nick met a girl called Rachel Lee, and it all started to go terribly, terribly wrong.
Kicked out of Calabasas High School for stealing a classmate's Ugg boots, which is not only the most Californian thing I think I've ever said, but really dates this story.
Rachel already had a reputation as a rebel. Pushing back against her strict Korean Tiger Mums expectations, Rachel wanted to be, in her words, a badass. She partied hard, dabbled with drugs and became known as a popular girl. At Indian Hills, your classic Queen Bee figure who was voted best dressed in the yearbook and wouldn't be seen dead in non-designer clothes, even for class. And for a closeted gay teen with a passion for fashion like Nick Prueger, Rachel was the ultimate cool girl, representing everything he wanted to be. The pair swiftly became besties after bonding over a shared love for style and celebs. And while Rachel described their friendship as super pure at first, let's just say it wouldn't stay that way very long.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:52)
After a party one night, Rachel jokingly tried a random luxury car door in their neighborhood, and lo and behold, it opened. She gleefully swiped a credit card that she found inside, and the next day she and Nick went on an extravagant Rodeo Drive shopping spree. High on the adrenaline rush, they started regularly checking cars almost every night, pocketing cash, drugs, and whatever else they could get their grubby mitts on. According to Nick, they even stole a few of the cars, brazenly driving them to school after changing the plates without being detected by police. Emboldened by their exploits, they nicknamed themselves Bonnie and Clyde, and declared that they were each other's ride or die. The only snag? The partners in crime were running out of unlogged cars in Calabasas, blowing through their new piggy bank funds on designer gear and drugs including Xanax and cocaine at alarming speed. Rachel and Nick were therefore in search of a new mark. So thank god for social media and the time on a tradition of oversharing.
Enter Nick's MySpace friend, Eden Maimon, aka Eden Hilton, a Paris Hilton superfan who made vlogs online pretending to be Hilton's sibling. When Eden guilelessly posted that he was off to Jamaica for a family holiday in early 2008, Nick and Rachel took it as an invitation. They broke into Eden's swanky Woodland Hills home swiping eight grand in cash from under his parents' bed, as well as several pieces of his mum's jewellery.
They crossed a line, but it wouldn't be the last time.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:27)
Nick and Rachel started setting their sights higher to a real Hilton. Yeah, we are talking about the OG nepo baby and reality star influencer, Paris Hilton. The motive was simple. Rachel liked Paris' style and she wanted a piece of her wardrobe, quite literally. Plus, they were counting on Paris' reputation as a dumb blonde in the hopes that she might be more likely to have lack security at her home. But first, they had to do their homework.
Nick found a website showing the addresses of Hollywood celebs, and they used Google Maps to figure out how they would approach the gated mansion. Next, they cyber-stalked Paris' social media and gossip sites to track her movements. And we have to remember that this was what infamous online puppet master, Perez Hilton, dubbed the Golden Era of Gossip in Hollywood, where, for the first time, people had instant access to celebrity lives through social media and sites like TMZ. And Perez Hilton did a lot of that damage his goddamn self. Paris Hilton herself got famous after the leak of a sex tape, killing any sense of privacy.