International Jewel Thief, 83, Arrested — Again
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iStock/Thinkstock(PALM DESERT, Calif.) — An 83-year-old jewel thief, who for 50 years robbed some of the world’s finest shops, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly trying to steal a $40,000 ring from a Palm Desert, Calif., jewelry store.
Doris Marie Payne, whose exploits were the subject of a recent documentary and whose life story is set to become a major feature film, was released from prison earlier this year after serving two and a half years of a five-year sentence.
“Payne was implicated in a jewelry theft Oct. 21,” said Deputy Julio Oseguera of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. Payne was charged with felony larceny and is being held on a $45,000 bond.
“My methodology of stealing jewelry took me all over the world…New York, Milan, Paris, Rome, London,” she says in The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne, the documentary about her life.
When she last appeared in court in 2011, Payne denied that she was proud of her five-decade career as a thief.
“I’ve never gloated about stealing…I never saw anything to gloat about,” she told a judge at the time, before going to prison.
Payne has not yet appeared in court or entered a plea. Police did not believe she had yet obtained an attorney.
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