Thieves hit 'The Money Queen' influencer's Bel-Air home, wind up with fake cash
An influencer known as "The Money Queen" declared that "karma won" after burglars broke into her Bel-Air home and made off with piles of fake cash used for a photo shoot.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call about a burglary in process at a home shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, according to a department spokesperson. By the time officers arrived, the suspects were gone.
The home belongs to financial influencer Amanda Frances, an author and creator of online courses who says her aim is to help women acquire wealth.
"The burglars ransacked my closet, damaging my home in the process, but they dropped nearly everything, prioritizing the prop money when confronted by a neighbor's security guard," Frances said in a statement shared with The Times.
The thieves abandoned several designer bags in the streets, which the police were then able to recover, she said. In their rush to flee, they left some of the fake money scattered in the street. She believes they also made off with a handful of purses, a ring and a necklace but dropped most of the items of major value.
The fake money was used in a recent photo shoot to promote Frances' "Money Mentality Makeover" digital course. In the past, Frances has withdrawn and returned real money from the bank for photo shoots, but she opted for prop money this time after her photographer suggested it would be safer, she said.
Although Frances is relieved the stolen money was fake, she remains rattled by the experience.
"I've worked incredibly hard my entire life to build what I have and own my home in Bel-Air," she stated. "I am disheartened and distraught that the city I have dreamed of living in — since I was a child being raised in a tiny town in Oklahoma — has turned out to be an unsafe place to raise a family."
Read more: 'L.A. in a Minute' host says he was on hold with 911 for an hour. 'What if my son was choking?'
Frances founded an online education and coaching company specializing in financial empowerment courses for women in 2011. The influencer now has more than half a million followers on Instagram, where she bills herself as a "self-made multimillionaire" and a "repetitive unrealistic goal achiever."
In an Instagram message shared with The Times, Frances noted that she bought the home from Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky, who raised their four children at the property. Richards is Paris Hilton's aunt and best known for her long-running role on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," while Umansky is a real estate broker known for his own reality show, "Buying Beverly Hills."
"They raised their four kids here, I have four kids," she told The Times. "This is a family home and we no longer feel safe."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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