25 Things You Didn't Know About the Real Bling Ring

A few fun facts about the bandits of Sofia Coppola's most recent flick.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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When news broke about a group of L.A. teenagers breaking into the homes of celebrities, the media started salivating almost as hard as the six teens—Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames, and Roy Lopez Jr.—drooled over Louis Vuitton bags and Louboutin shoes. Like anything else sensationalized in pop culture, the gang's name was soon up for grabs. "The Hollywood Hills Burglars," stated the L.A.P.D.; "The Burglar Bunch," TMZ chimed in; "The Bling Ring," the Los Angeles Times published.

However, it was an article written in Vanity Fair magazine's March 2010 edition by Nancy Jo Sales titled "The Suspects Wore Louboutins" that caught film director Sofia Coppola's attention. While reading the magazine on an airplane, Coppola thought the story of the group who robbed the homes of Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan (to name a few) sounded like a movie. So she created just that.

Hitting theatres everywhere this Friday, The Bling Ring, starring Emma Watson and a handful of fresh faces (Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Claire Julien, and Taissa Farmiga) recounts the events of the infamous robberies.

For more about the true story, here are 25 things you didn't know about the real-life members of the Bling Ring.

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Nick Prugo and Rachel Lee determined their targets by asking themselves the question, "Which star do you think would leave their door unlocked and cash laying around?" The pair found $8,000 in cash laying around their first victim Paris Hilton's home.

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The group figured out the location of the celebrity victims' homes by using Google Maps and celebrityaddressaeriel.com.

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The robbers were able to target their victims by finding out which celebrities would be out of town through Internet blogs and the star's own social media accounts.

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Overall, the Bling Ring stole from seven celebrities: Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson, Brian Austin Green, Megan Fox, and Paris Hilton.

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Audrina Patridge was one of the only celebrities who got robbed who took action right away. The reality star caught the robbers on her security cameras and posted the video on her blog the next day.

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Ring leader Rachel Lee and accomplice Diana Tamayo had been previously arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for shoplifting $85 worth of cosmetics from Sephora in 2009.

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Diana Tamayo's small size proved beneficial to the burglaries. At one robbery, she broke into a home through a doggy door.

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Nick Prugo is an aspiring actor. He played Kenny in the made-for-TV movie, Little Lost Souls: Children Possessed (2003).

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Most of the bandits (excluding Lopez and Ajar) attended Indian Hills High School, an alternative school for troubled teens or academically weak students, near the wealthy L.A. suburb of Calabasas.

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Rachel Lee won "Best Dressed" at Indian Hills High School in 2007.

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After her trial and the failure of her reality show, Pretty Wild, Alexis Neirs admittedly found herself living at a Best Western smoking crack and shooting up heroin every day. She was arrested in December of 2010 for possession of black tar heroin and was consequently sent to rehab for a year.

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The scenes in The Bling Ring of the bandits breaking and entering into Paris Hilton's house were actually filmed at the socialite's home.

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The gang was able to hit Paris Hilton's home five times due to her leaving a spare key under her doormat.

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Paris Hilton only realized she had been robbed when Roy Lopez Jr. took about $2 million worth of jewelry that her grandmother gave her.

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Hilton admitted that she's never received an apology from the robbers, and wouldn't accept it if they extended one.

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According to Courtney Ames, during one of the burglaries at Paris Hilton's home, Nick Prugo realized he was able fit in the starlet's shoes and did a victory dance wearing her heels.

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The robbers claimed they found about five grams of coke in Paris Hilton's house. Her rep Dawn Miller replied, "I don't know why anyone would listen to allegations made by a self-confessed thief."

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Rachel Lee really didn't give a shit, except when she robbed Rachel Bilson. Prugo admits that while he was freaking out about the robbery, Lee was calm and focused, even taking the time to take a crap in the starlet's bathroom.

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Jonathan Ajar, nicknamed "Jonnie Dangerous" by L.A. partygoers, served as the ring's "fence," selling off the stolen items. After being charged in 2010 with possession of cocaine for sale, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and one count of receiving stolen property, Ajar was released in March 2011. He is currently still living life large, which he documents on his Instagram account.

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The gang sold 10 Rolexes to Jonnie Dangerous for about $5,000, which Prugo admits was "a rip-off."

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On June 24, 2010, Alexia Neiers reported to an L.A. county women's jail to begin serving her 180-day sentence. In a funny twist, Neirs did her time alongside her victim Lindsay Lohan.

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Nick Prugo was the first member of the gang to be arrested and charged with residential burglary. With little police pressure, he confessed to everything, even crimes the L.A.P.D. didn't know he committed, and released the names of the other burglars, Courtney Ames, Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, and Roy Lopez. All made non-guilty pleas.

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Nick Prugo was arrested while wearing Orlando Bloom's black and white stripped T-shirt. He is photographed wearing the shirt in his mugshot.

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Alexis Neiers is currently living a sober and wholesome life. She married Evan Haines, 38, whom she met at rehab for alcoholism, and she just gave birth to a baby girl named Harper in May 2013. Neirs documents her new life on her blog.

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Brett Goodkin, the real case's head of investigation, has a cameo arresting Emma Watson's character Nicki, for which he received $12,500 for his less than 15 seconds of fame. Ironically, Goodkin is now in danger of losing his job after being charged with not obtaining the proper work permit for his time on Coppola's production, for making an alleged false statement to head Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara Murphy about his work on the movie, and for ultimately compromising the prosecution's case.

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