Bling ring on trial for stealing $4m from US celebrities

It was only a matter of time before burglars would use social networking websites to identify likely targets.

This week in Los Angeles, prosecutors will claim that the "Bling Ring", four Hollywood teenagers and two 20-something men, robbed celebrities whose houses they cased through the internet.

The alleged victims include Hollywood A-listers, such as Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. The gang is believed to have bagged more than US$3 million ($4 million) of loot, mainly jewellery.

It has also brought together a murky tale that seems to combine many of the dominant themes of cultural angst in America: the boredom of the young and rich; the fetishisation of fame; and the disappearance of privacy thanks to Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The hearing this week will see four of the Bling Ring in court for preliminary hearings on the evidence against them, kicking off what many observers feel will be a dramatic legal case.

Certainly the accused are not stereotypical burglars. Instead they are young, relatively well-off and linked to the Hollywood social scene which they stand accused of exploiting.

Alexis Neiers, 18, was arrested while she was on the set of a pilot for a reality television show she was filming. Her sister is a Playboy model. Another, Nick Prugo, 19, appeared in a film called Little Lost Souls.

Most of the gang knew each other from the wealthy suburb of Calabasas, 30 minutes' drive away from Hollywood Hills, where most of the celebrity victims lived.

Far from being crime-ridden, Calabasas boasts several stars among its residents, including actor Will Smith and reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian.

Though it has been reported some of the stolen goods were fenced for cash, the gang were also allegedly spotted wearing much of their loot, especially the jewellery and watches.

"They came from privileged backgrounds. These people were not conducting crimes because they needed the money or the stolen goods. They did it probably for the thrill of it," said Elizabeth Kelley, a criminal defence lawyer who has been following the case.

The gang's modus operandi seems disarmingly simple, police say, comprising merely consulting gossip websites such as TMZ or supermarket tabloids to check the latest fashions and designer jewels being worn by Hollywood's young stars.

They would then use the same websites, and social media tools such as Twitter, on which many young stars post constant updates, to see if potential targets were out of town.

In particular, they employed a website called Celebrityaddressaerial.com, which displays photographs of celebrity houses. It is meant for the simply curious, but for the Bling Ring it allegedly became a tool for choosing their next victim.

"The internet has meant a new era for the criminal mind. There is more and more information out there, but there is less privacy," said Kelley.

Thanks to online research, the gang could strike knowing the target was not at home. It is alleged some celebrities, including actress Rachel Bilson and Paris Hilton, were hit more than once.

In most cases the burglars found that doors had been left unlocked. The gang's hauls could be spectacular. In July last year Bloom was relieved of US$500,000 of jewellery, watches and other goods.

While only the trial will reveal the strength of the prosecution and defence cases, either way the Bling Ring did not seem to have covered its tracks as carefully as it planned its strikes.

Prugo is reported to have told investigators that artwork stolen from Bloom was hanging in one of his friend's bathrooms, while photographs have emerged of some gang members posing in stolen jewellery.

They also kept personal photographs of Hilton and personal items from Lohan and Audrina Partridge, a reality TV actress on the MTV show The Hills.

About US$2 million of merchandise has been recovered. "It as if they were cut off from reality. It's something that began on things like Facebook, but it is going to end with them wearing handcuffs," said celebrity interviewer Gayl Murphy.

The case also reads like a movie script, which probably won't upset the accused. Said Murphy: "I wouldn't be surprised if there were two or three screenplays already being written with just this plot."

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