ATLANTA (AP) – Ten years ago, when she was 75 years old, Doris Payne swore she was done with a lifetime of pilfering jewels across two continents. Several arrests later, in 2013, she said again that she was leaving that life behind.
Police say Payne, now 85, is at it again: She was recently arrested and charged with pocketing a $690 pair of earrings from a Saks Fifth Avenue department store at a mall in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood.
Payne is said to have committed countless thefts over six decades in the U.S. and Europe and has discussed her exploits in media interviews over the years.
A store security guard watching surveillance video saw Payne enter a Christian Dior boutique inside the department store and take the earrings from a standing shelf before quickly leaving, the police report says. She was arrested in the mall, and the earrings were found in her pocket, the report says.
She faces a charge of theft by shoplifting and was booked into the Fulton County jail. She is also wanted on a warrant for a similar offense by the sheriff’s office in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, and will face extradition, police said.