New Bling Rings Are Burglarizing Celebrity Homes Around the LA Area

Hide your diamonds, hide your pearls. The bling ring is back. Kinda. The gang of SoCal teens who for one brief shining moment burglarized Hollywood by using gossip to find out when celebrities would be out of town and the Internet to find those celebs’ home addresses is all grown up and, far as we can tell, out of the crime game. But after a recent spate of high-profile burglaries, stars are wondering if a new ring is on the rise, this time fueled by social media.

As the Kim Kardashian Paris Incident made us all aware, it’s only too easy for a would-be robber to find out where a star, and his or her valuables, is at any given time. By scrolling through geo-tagged Instas, anyone can find out where you are, what you have and maybe even how you’re storing it.

But Kim was far from the last or only celebrity to be ripped off by criminals. According to TMZ, the LAPD is currently “investigating 23 celebrity burglary cases” 19 of which occurred in the San Fernando Valley, now a more popular burglary spot than Hollywood. Among the recent victims are “Kyle Richards, Yasiel Puig, Mariah Carey, Jason Derulo and Scott Disick.”

Richards, the Real Housewife aunt of original bling ring victim Paris Hilton, in particular, reportedly had somewhere around one million dollars of jewelry, including her wedding ring, stolen from her home. She’s since upped security with an armed god and three trained dogs. One of Carey’s home was robbed of around $50,000 worth of designer sunglasses and purses back in October. A large amount of cash was swiped from Disick’s home in 2016 when he was off partying in Cannes.

The latest rash of robberies is almost definitely not the work of another group of starstruck teens. Per TMZ, “There are various, sophisticated groups of burglars hitting posh areas of L.A. Police say there have also been an incredible number of non-celebrity hits. These burglars are looking for nice houses with nice contents…they’re not looking for famous victims.” But they’ve managed to find those famous victims anyway by targeting a home security system’s blindspots. TMZ reports that, “most of the celebs have been hit by professional burglars, who know the weak points of a home and how to penetrate them. For example, a number of the break-ins have been through second floor balcony windows, accessed by a ladder…many homeowners don’t put alarms on second floor doors and windows.”

Still, it couldn’t hurt to have Nancy Jo Sales at the ready.

Related: Emma Watson on The Bling Ring