Rachel Bilson and Audrina Patridge are bonding over their shared experience as victims of the Bling Ring’s burglaries.
“They took trash bags of stuff. They knew I was at an Oscar party, and they knew that because I tweeted it,” Patridge, 38, recalled during a Monday, February 26, appearance on Bilson’s “Broad Ideas” podcast. “My back door was open, but I have a gate and no one can get through there. But I guess the electricity or something went off and on.”
The Hills alum added that the February 2009 burglary took place right after she returned from a trip to Australia, so many of her belongings were “still packed” in suitcases.
“I came home, and I was like, ‘Am I losing my mind? My suitcase is gone, my laptop. Everything is off my bed. What is going on?'” Patridge said before explaining the fear she felt after realizing that things were missing.
“I went in my closet and I called my sister and I was like, ‘OK, if I open my jewelry box and stuff is gone, someone is in my house or stole stuff.’ I opened it, and everything is gone,” she recounted. “That’s when I locked myself in, because I didn’t know if they were still in the house. I was afraid to get off the phone, so I had my brother-in-law call 911 while I was on speaker and then they sent the cops.”
Bilson, 42, meanwhile, wasn’t home when the group burglarized her home “five different times” in 2009. She told Patridge about her experience interviewing Bling Ring members Gabby and Alexis Neiers in October 2022, which Patridge noted was “really big” of her.
“I’m old enough and grown past it enough, you were a kid. Like, you want to talk about it — fine. I’m not gonna be like, ‘Oh, it’s cool whatever,’ but I wasn’t going to give them a hard time either,” Bilson said. “It was kind of just like, ‘Sure, say your piece. You were kids, but it was so f–ked up. There’s no way around that.’”
Patridge admitted that her fear subsided when she found out that teenagers were behind the crimes.
“When I found out it was two young kids, it took a lot of the anxiety off,” she said, noting that Bling Ring members Nick Prugo and Rachel Lee carried out the burglary at her home.
While Bilson and Patridge have both put the experience behind them, they expressed regret about losing certain items.
“I didn’t get anything back, ever. I didn’t even get money back. … They took stuff from my aunt, like, vintage Chanel watches,” Patridge said. “You can have the clothes, just give me the sentimental things.”
Bilson chimed in to say that her mom’s first engagement ring was stolen during one break-in.
“My mom still talks about it,” she said.
In addition to Patridge and Bilson, the Bling Ring targeted celebrities including Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Its members — Lee, Prugo, Alexis, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames, Johnny Ajar and Roy Lopez Jr. — faced varying consequences for their roles in the burglaries. Ames, Lopez and Tamayo were sentenced to probation and community service while Ajar, Alexis, Lee and Prugo all served time in prison.
Gabby, meanwhile, admitted for the first time in September 2022 that she was present during one of the burglaries at Bilson’s house.
“I was at Rachel Bilson’s house one of the nights that it was robbed, and I went there willingly. I was drunk but I’m not making any excuses because I went there willingly,” she said during an Instagram Live with Alexis.
