Teenage Burglars Used Internet Map Sites To Scope Out Celebrity Homes
By WENNMonday, April 12, 2010
The teen members of Hollywood’s burglary ‘Bling Ring’ used the latest internet celebrity-spotting websites to scope out stars’ homes prior to raids, according to the Los Angeles police officer in charge of the ongoing case.
The leaders of the gang have been rounded up and now face charges of felony burglary, among other things, and L.A. cop Brett Goodkin reveals he has learned that the teenagers planned their burglary binges on the homes of stars like Orlando Bloom, Lindsay Lohan and Rachel Bilson after checking out aerial footage of their properties online.
In a TV news special about the ‘Bling Ring’ which aired on Dateline in America on Friday (09Apr10), the officer explains the young thieves had an awful lot of internet information at their fingertips - thanks to the growth of celebrity websites.
He said, “It’s one thing to look at a Star Map with maybe a caricature of Zsa Zsa Gabor on it, it’s another thing to look at… high-resolution satellite imagery of the home, how to get to it, trails that maybe lead up to a hill that you would normally not know about. This stuff is out there on the Internet.
“It’s not the Internet’s fault… Not everyone who is gonna jump on the Internet and use GoogleMaps or CelebrityAerials.com has a criminal enterprise who support it. However, if you do, it’s there - and, in most cases, it’s free.”
And lawyer Sean Erenstoft, who previously represented one of the alleged burglars, Nicholas Prugo, told the TV news special that the celebrities always made it easy for the ‘Bling Ring’ teenagers to raid their homes.
He explained, “Only once was there forced entry and even then it was with a screwdriver to remove a screen (from) Lindsay Lohan’s bathroom window. For the most part, there’s always an access point without a lock.
“There was one occasion the owner of the house left her key under the front mat, and when that key was found to be missing (she) replaced the key.”
Erenstoft revealed Paris Hilton, whose home was targeted multiple times, was the star behind the doormat key mishap.
