For The O.C. and Hart of Dixie star Rachel Bilson, one key thing still lingers from her experience as a victim of the "Bling Ring" heists.
In 2010, several teens who were part of a group dubbed the "Bling Ring" served time in prison for burglarizing and robbing celebrity homes in Los Angeles. Rachel's house was one of the properties that was hit—five times—and while the thieves were inside, one of the group members allegedly used the actress' bathroom.
"You know, it was kind of crazy at the time," Bilson, 39, said on the Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino podcast on Wednesday, March 31. "I guess they came into my house five different times and took everything and even one girl gave an interview, she was like, 'I got so comfortable going in her house, I took a s--t in her bathroom!' I was like, that's more invasive than stealing my purses [laughs]. But yeah, you know, they were young and hopefully, the others learned as well. Who knows. I mean, that's all you can hope for, at this point."
Journalist Nancy Jo Sales wrote about the "Bling Ring" in a 2010 Vanity Fair article, which inspired Sofia Coppola's 2013 satirical crime film of the same name. In the feature story, group member Nick Prugo told Sales that his colleague Rachel Lee went to the bathroom at Bilson's house and had a bowel movement. Lee has not commented.
In Sales' 2013 book The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World, Prugo was quoted as saying, "We were in Rachel's [Bilson's] bathroom and Rachel [Lee] just had to go, so she just...yeah. I remember the incident so well. I can recall the smell, which is really nasty, disgusting," according to The Huffington Post.
On the podcast, Bilson said she never saw The Bling Ring film. She also said she was robbed again, by different perpetrators, about three years ago.
"I was robbed at the house I was renting," she said. "And at that point, I was like, it really teaches you to detach yourself from material possessions. I literally was like, 'Well, here we go again. All right.'"
She added, laughing, "The thing I've like, trained myself not to get too attached. It's not fun, but it's at least it's a good lesson."
Bilson said the possessions that were stolen for her were not returned. "And I'm like, who's wearing a size five shoe?" she joked. "Like, what are you going to do with these shoes, people? Give it back!"
One of the most famous "Bling Ring" group members was Alexis Neiers Haines, who Emma Watson played in the movie. Haines served a reduced sentence of one out of six months in jail after pleading no contest to taking part in a 2009 burglary at Orlando Bloom's Hollywood home.
Haines battled a drug addiction before and after her release from jail. Months after she was freed, she was arrested for possession of heroin and perjury for a fake ID. She later underwent court-ordered rehab for one year and became a drug counselor at the Malibu, Calif. branch of her husband Evan Haines' Alo House Recovery Centers.
"I didn't know that she had had this like life-changing moment," Bilson said on the podcast. "But that's great! I think if anyone can take something and turn it into something great, good and positive, I'm all for it."