Rachel Lee, the leader of ‘Bling Ring,’ infamous for robbing multiple Hollywood celebrities from 2008 to 2009, is sharing her side of the story for the first time.
Does the term “Bling Ring” sound familiar to you? These teens and 20-somethings became household names following their 2010 arrests.
The group stole roughly $3 million in cash and belongings from Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Orlando, Bloom, and many others from 2008 to 2009.
If you are wondering how they robbed the homes of these famous A-listers, don’t worry; you’re not alone, and we already have an answer to that.
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The Mastermind
Rachel Lee, the mastermind behind these infamous “Bling Ring” robberies, is breaking her silence.
In the new documentary titled The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring which is currently streaming on Max, Lee speaks for the first time about robbing celebrities.
But first, who is Rachel Lee?
Lee was just 19 years old and high on Xanax when she drove 4 hours from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to rob Lohan’s home.
“My friends called me and they said ‘Let’s go steal’, so I got my things and I remember taking Xanax and I left,” she said in the documentary.
“It really sounds psychotic, but I still felt that FOMO.”
The Explanation
Now 33, Lee admitted how thrilling it was to steal money from her mom’s purse as a kid.
She confessed that to always having an inclination toward cheating and deception, paired with resentment over her outsider status as an Asian kid in California.
Lee stated that these celebrity heists that they managed to pull off were a result of her toxic relationship with co-conspirator Nick Prugo, and her impulse to emulate Hollywood badassery.
“For me, it was like, when I started watching those Fast and Furious, Ocean’s 11 movies,” Lee said. “I was like, ‘Icon. I want to be that.’ Honestly, I don’t know why I thought like that, but I did.”
Even though she knew she was playing with fire, she says the thrill of getting away with the crimes was addictive.
In the documentary, she recalled her last adrenaline-filled heist which is Lohan’s home. They stole $130,000 worth of clothing, jewelry, and personal belongings.
“I remember pulling up [to Lohan’s house] and the stakes were so high because there was already surveillance of us,” Lee said.
She knew they were on LAPD’s radar after TMZ dropped surveillance footage of the teens burglarizing Audrina Partridge’s home.
“At this point, we were just on the actual edge. I think there was a part of me that was like ‘I’m going to finish strong’.”
The End of the Heist
Unfortunately for Lee, one of her friends, Alexis Neiers, ratted her and Nick Prugo out to the police via an anonymous phone call.
From there, the scheme fell apart, and all of them were arrested.
Lee ended up accepting a plea deal of four years in a California state prison for robbing Patridge’s home.
She served for 16 months.
“Most people, if they saw me on the street they’d be like, ‘Oh she’s just a normal person,'” Lee says in the documentary’s trailer.
“But there’s always anxiety. What if they realize who I am and what I did with the Bling Ring?”
“I didn’t like my world,” Lee continues in the trailer.
“Going into a celebrity home and trying on their stuff, I was able to live in their world.”
Banner photo via Instagram @hbo.
