86-Year-Old Jewel Thief Arrested In US

Legendary jewel thief, 86-year-old Doris Payne, has been arrested after trying to shoplift products from a Walmart in suburban Atlanta in the US.

Payne has been a notorious jewellery thief. She used to pull off heists that were valued at tens of thousands of dollars. She is even the subject of a documentary film. This time, she was arrested for stealing goods worth $86.22 in value. According to WSB-TV, one of the cops even said that Payne “was a nice lady when they just arrested her, very charismatic”.

Last year, Payne made news for slipping a $2,000 diamond necklace into her pocket.

Payne has stolen jewellery all over the US and on three continents. Her life of crime began in the early twenties, and she has had at least 22 aliases.

Here are a few things to know about lady who has kept the police on its toes for over six decades.

She was raised in West Virginia and later moved to Ohio.

In the 1970s, The Jeweller’s Security Alliance, an industry trade group, sent out a notice warning about the thief.

So how does she manage to pull it off? She enters jewellery stores dressed as a well-off woman, engages the clerk and asks to see an assortment of jewellery. Through small distractions, she would make the clerk forget how many pieces of jewellery she had tried, and she would slip one or two pieces into her purse.

“I don’t tell a person in the store I want to see something that costs $10,000. They make those decisions based on how I present myself and how I look,” she has told AP News.

She has had many stints in prison. She was sentenced to 16 months in prison for stealing a 1-carat diamond ring at the age of 80. At the age of 83, she was arrested once again for stealing a $22,500 diamond ring in California and was sentenced to two years in prison, and two years on parole. But she was released in three months due to prison overcrowding.

Also Read: Inspiration: Thief snatches her phone, woman chases and nabs him, hands him to police

Picture Credit: Time