The Bling Ring (32 page)

“Like anyone I just respected too much to—?”

“To even entertain scoping or, or doing?”

“No,” said Nick. “Rachel gave me a name, pretty much, and I'd Google it, see what I could do with it.”

“Was there anyone you said ‘No' to? ‘That's out of the question,' ” Erenstoft asked.

“No,” Nick said, “because everyone that she said was either Paris Hilton, or some, like, you know—I don't want to say ‘airhead,' but someone that's not—not that I didn't have
respect
for them—”

“Were there ever any discussions between you,” I asked, “to the effect of, ‘Oh, they have so much, it doesn't matter.' ”

“Rachel kind of had that thinking,” said Nick. “I never really thought that. I mean, they did earn it in some way or another—it is theirs. And I never really thought that way. Rachel kind of instilled that in my mind.”

I asked him if they ever discussed the morality of what they'd done. “Did you ever say, ‘This is wrong?' ”

He sighed. He didn't answer.

“Do you think that she has a sense of right and wrong?” I asked.

“I think she does,” he said, “but I think she thinks that these people, being celebrities, like you said, they're so rich. . . .” He talked about how Rachel herself “had money,” how she drove a “brand new Audi. [Her family] lived in like a million-dollar house. The thing about Calabasas and Malibu is the parents are generally well-off people. . . People had nice clothes—and
I
had nice clothes before this; it wasn't like I didn't—the appeal to have
more
is what it was I guess with Rachel; it was so easy and there were no consequences. . . .

“I guess my thought was always, you know, ‘Take a little bit so they don't notice,' ” said Nick. “Don't take everything and really screw them over, but just take a little bit so they don't notice.

“And I guess Rachel was kind of always, ‘let's go in, take whatever we can and leave.' ”

22

More than anything, he said, it was about friendship, times when he would be riding around with Rachel in her car, just listening to music and enjoying being together. “There was one song called ‘Satellites,' ” by September, he said, “it's kind of a techno-y song, it reminds me of me and Rachel driving on P.C.H. kind of high.” There was a melancholy feeling to their life sometimes, because of the problems they had with their parents and at school. “I love music, music like really helps me emotionally,” he said. “I love Billy Joel's ‘Vienna.' ” (
“Slow down, you crazy child/You're so ambitious for a juvenile”
).

“Now that I look back on it,” he said, he understood the seriousness of it—“obviously”—but “when this was going on, it was made so it was, like, so unserious. It was just like, not a rush, but it was so nonchalant. . . .We just did it.”

I asked him about how everyone in their circle came to know what they were doing.

“People knew because Rachel would tell one person, I would tell one person, people would talk and it
was
very interesting,” he said. “People would talk and eventually I guess it led to a tip to the police.”

I asked him about how it felt to be exposed.

“Like the one thing that pissed me off about Courtney,” Nick said, “was she said that I danced and like wore Paris Hilton's shoes.”

(“He didn't just want to steal celebrities clothes—he wanted to wear them!” said the
New York Post
. “Hollywood burglary suspect Nick Prugo was so giddy after getting a hold of hot celebrity goods that he slipped his dainty feet into Paris Hilton's stolen shoes and did a little victory dance, according to another accused member of a teen robbery gang. ‘He could fit into her shoes,' Courtney Ames, 18, told
The Post
in an exclusive interview yesterday. ‘He put them on and got into a dance and said, ‘Don't I look good?' ”)

“We didn't even
take
any shoes from Paris Hilton,” Nick said, frowning. Because they were too big.

I asked him how it felt when Tess talked to X17 Online.

“You know what,” Nick said, “I took a lot from [Tess and Alexis] with their beliefs in Buddhism and stuff. But I really don't think that they genuinely believe that. I think they just use it as a front, because if they really did believe that, they'd be living a lot differently. . . .But, like, I still love them. I still love them, I still care for them, I still want the best for them, every one of my friends.

“Actually, my friend saw Tess at Wonderland a week ago,” Nick said. “And my friend told Tess just to mess with her that I was coming. And Tess freaked out, I guess. I know they still go out. They're still carefree. Rachel's carefree. She just has a possession of stolen property charge”—so far.

“I think if they haven't charged [Rachel] up to this point,” Erenstoft said, “it's because they're holding out hope that she might do the right thing and give up the property that she has. . . . She sort of confessed that she has property.”

“Do you think she just wants to keep it?” I asked Nick.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know she does. . . .

“It sounds like she likes having it,” I said.

“I liked it too,” he said, “but I gave it back.”

He seemed bothered that his former friends were living the same glamorous life as they had before, as if nothing had happened—as if he weren't sitting here facing years in jail. “I'll see comments [on Facebook] between people,” he said, “like, ‘We're meeting up. We're going to go out.' Like, Diana is going to have a party this weekend. On her Facebook page, she's writing, ‘I'm having a party this weekend.' On Facebook, for anybody to see! . . . Everything's just like, normal for them. Rachel's the same: ‘Let's go hang out.' It's like nothing is affected.”

He and Rachel were no longer Facebook friends, he said, but he had heard of her postings from other people. Rachel was back in L.A., he said, living at her older sister's apartment.

“Do you know how her mother reacted to everything?” I asked.

“Unfavorably,” Nick said dryly.

“So you're saying they're living like nothing has changed.”

“Yeah,” he said, “it's, like, all on me.”

“You think they think it's all going to be all on you?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, “and you know, I hope not. I hope it's not all on me.” He laughed again, but he sounded emotional.

23

He said he was getting help now, trying to figure out why he'd done what he did. “I'm seeing a psychiatrist once a month, therapist every week. We talk,” he said. “She's really helpful. We really just talk about normal things, like school.

“I'm supposed to start in January,” he said. “It's the University of Phoenix . . . I think I'm going to do it online, just so I don't have to deal with people in my area. I'm trying to just get away from the social group that I was in. I want to branch off and start something new for myself. It's difficult because I don't have any friend support system, but my family is there for me. And I keep myself busy with school and try to get through this legal stuff, and—I'm really trying. There's not much more I can do I think. You know?

“I'm really just trying to stay positive and do everything I can,” he said. “I do AA meetings. . . . I had a possession charge, so I enrolled in a program where if I complete it it's expunged from my record. I'm doing that. I'm really busy. I have things to do so I'm not getting in trouble. I'm not out partying. I don't have a car. I can't drive anywhere.

“And I'm just trying to do my best,” he said, “and I'm trying to help the police as much as I can. To this day, I'm in constant communication, helping them every day. Whatever questions they have, I answer. I'm really there for them. I'm really just trying to pay back my debt to society. I gave everything back. I'm just really trying to make whatever amends that I can, especially to these celebrities that I victimized. I really want them to know that I'm sorry. . . . I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that yet. But I really plan on making some formal apology to them—something to just let them know that I am sorry. I really—I am.”

“What did you want to become? What do you want to become?” I asked.

He gave a small laugh. “When I met Rachel, I wanted to do fashion,” he said. “Designing. Clothing line. . . . I wanted to be an actor at some point. I wanted to be a plastic surgeon. My career ideas have changed forever. I've just been kind of trying to find myself and what I want to do.”

“What about now?” I said.

“Now,” he said, “I want to go to school. . . . I'm taking travel, tourism, and hospitality. And maybe I'm going to open up some kind of hotel or restaurant and do something like that. I don't necessarily want to do entertainment because I think that possibility, um, may be ruined.

“I just want to be happy, you know?” he said. “I guess my first goal when I was trying to pick a career was for the money or the fame or whatever. But now I've realized, just go be happy. It's about the relationships in your life. It's not about who's making the most money or who's the most famous or whatever. It really is about your family. And I have much more respect for my family and appreciation. They're the biggest support system I have.”

He was wearing a pair of good-looking shoes, shiny black sneakers. I asked him where he got them. “A thrift store,” he said ruefully. “Thirteen bucks.”

24

Throughout October, November, and December 2009, a parade of celebrities came into Hollywood Station to identify and retrieve their stolen goods; they also identified items of clothing worn by alleged members of the Bling Ring in photographs. Paris Hilton retrieved the Louis Vuitton tote bag full of her jewelry. Audrina Patridge and Rachel Bilson got back clothes and purses and luggage and electronics. Lindsay Lohan recovered some clothing and jewelry and her custom-made black mink coat. Brian Austin Green got back his Rolex watch and his handgun. Detective Steven Ramirez visited Orlando Bloom at his home and returned his recovered Rolexes and his clothes. Many things were returned, but all of the celebrities said in Grand Jury testimony that they only got back a fraction of what was stolen. Many said they were still finding things missing.

I noticed in the news on December 1, 2009, there was a story about the socialite Casey Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, robbing the home of a friend. “Heiress in Theft Scandal,” said the
New York Post
. Johnson—whom I'd seen around New York when I was covering celebrities and the nightclub scene; she was a friend of Paris Hilton's—had stolen clothing, jewelry, and other items from a model named Jasmine Lennard, a rich girl and reality star (Britain's
Make Me a Supermodel
, 2005–2006).

Johnson, who had reportedly been cut off from her family after refusing to seek help for her drug addiction, had also taken Lennard's underwear and shoes. “I believe she was obsessed with me,” Lennard told the
Post
. Johnson was arrested in Los Angeles and was being held on $20,000 bail at Van Nuys Station. In a month she would be dead, in West Hollywood, of diabetic ketoacidosis.

25

Alexis arrived at the Polo Lounge in late 2009 wearing velvet tights, a black blazer, six-inch Christian Louboutin heels, and a cloche hat. She looked like a 21st century flapper. I remarked on the heels. “I got them at a secondhand store,” she said offhandedly. “ ‘It's A Wrap.' ” It was a place that sold extras from movie and TV sets.

“Dude,” Andrea said, settling into the booth. “I got the most amazing Armani suit there for two hundred dollars.”

We were meeting there with Alexis' lawyer, Jeffery Rubenstein, to finally discuss Alexis' case and see what she had to say about the accusation that she had burglarized the home of Orlando Bloom. Her preliminary hearing was coming up in a couple days. She ordered a cappuccino.

“I met Nick back in March of this year,” Alexis began with a deep breath. “I was never friends with Nick.” This was a slight variation on her story so far, but I figured I'd just let her roll. “I didn't care for Nick because he took all of Tess's attention,” Alexis said, “and I didn't like the amount of partying and stuff that they did together. I wasn't comfortable with it and I didn't really ever trust him; he had a rumored past. He was not the greatest kid.” She'd told me earlier that she liked Nick and thought he was a “good guy,” but never mind.

“He took a pair of my shoes and ruined them,” said Andrea. “Fucking hot heels.”

“Ruined them doing what?” I asked.

“Walking around in them,” Andrea said.

“He would try on our high heels and walk around and stuff like that,” Alexis said. “They were like, pointed stiletto heels, like five-inch. When I would go over to his house to get ready with Tess when we were getting ready to go out in big groups, he'd be doing his makeup and hair—‘Does this look good?' He would always style me and Tess in our clothes and come over and look in our wardrobes.”

Asked about this, Nick's current attorney, Markus Dombois, a colleague of Daniel Horowitz, characterized the girls Nick surrounded himself with as “mean girls—they're right out of that movie. They'll say anything about each other. They're pretty ruthless. They have few scruples.”

“So you believed [Nick] when he said he was a stylist,” Rubenstein interjected.

“I did believe him completely,” Alexis said. “I mean he dressed to a tee—polo sweaters and perfect belts to match your shoes and your hat and your glasses. He would always dress us. . .come over to our house.”