In a town already known for meteoric rises in status and fortune, a group of Los Angeles teenagers are said to have found a fast way to enjoy the glitz and glamour of the stars - by burgling their houses.

Los Angeles police say four teenage girls and a boy pored over fashion magazines, websites and gossip television shows and selected jewellery and clothing they wanted, then determined where the targeted stars lived, cased their houses, and struck, in some cases more than once at the same house.

The crude burglaries, which police say netted millions of dollars, were captured on surveillance cameras, and detectives have linked the teens to break-ins at the Hollywood homes of Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, reality television star Audrina Patridge, and others, US news media reported. In some instances the victims remained unaware their homes had been burgled.

"This is a no-brains caper. There's not a lot of self-awareness," Los Angeles detective Brett Goodkin told the Los Angeles Times. "They saw it, they wanted it, they took it and continued taking it."

The suspects, who include a girl who was hoping to star in a reality television show of her own, have earned instant notoriety in a culture in which the bar for media stardom seems to drop weekly.

In a twist seemingly written by a jobbing Hollywood screenwriter, the suspects now find themselves featured alongside the celebrities they are accused of burgling on TMZ.com, a celebrity news website that has followed the case since the thefts were first reported.

Police say the group's ringleader was 19-year-old Rachel Lee, arrested on Friday in Las Vegas. TMZ reported that authorities seized from Lee's father's home in Las Vegas a hat linked to Lohan and partially nude photos linked to Hilton. Lee, Diana Tamayo, 19, Courtney Ames, 18, Nicholas Prugo, 18, and Alexis Neiers, 18, are accused of a burglary spree that began in October 2008 and ran until September. Prugo was the first arrested, after turning up alongside others in surveillance footage. He was accused of stealing $170,000 in designer jewellery and clothing from the homes of Lohan and Patridge.

The girls were classmates at Indian Hills High School, a school for troubled teens. The suspects were allegedly aided by 27-year-old bartender Roy Lopez, accused of fencing the stolen goods.

Goodkin said the suspects focused on one star at a time, tracking their movements using ubiquitous celebrity photograph and media sites on the internet and learning when they were scheduled to be out of town. Police seized from Prugo a laptop containing images of one of the suspects flashing a stack of cash, and showing a history of internet searches for close-up photographs of the victims' jewellery, TMZ reported.

A lawyer for some of the victims has said Los Angeles paparazzi photographers are at fault for prying into stars' private lives, revealing details about their houses and encouraging the theft.

Other crimes against US celebrities

Nicole Richie: The reality TV star and daughter of Lionel Richie was hurt this month when a paparazzo photographer crashed into her car in Beverly Hills.

John Travolta: A Bahamian paramedic and attorney are accused of trying to extort money from the Pulp Fiction star in return for silence about the circumstances surrounding his son's death.

David Letterman: A CBS news producer is charged with seeking $2m from the television host to keep mum about an affair he had with an employee.