The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jewelry thief arrested again at Perimeter Mall
86-year-old woman has a 60-year history of pulling off heists.
As far as criminals go, Doris Payne isn’t the greatest, but the aging jewelry thief could be the poster woman for recidivism.
Payne, 86, was arrested at Perimeter Mall on Tuesday evening after she allegedly stole a diamond necklace from the Von Maur department store, Dunwoody police said Wednesday in an incident report. According to a Dunwoody police spokesman, Payne concealed a $2,000 necklace in her back pocket and attempted to exit the store.
This is the second time in just over a year that Payne has been arrested in metro Atlanta. Last year, she was picked up for shoplifting at Phipps Plaza.
In October 2015, Payne spent several days in Fulton County jail on a charge of theft by shoplifting greater than $500 when she was accused of stealing a pair of $700 Christian Dior earrings from Saks Fifth Avenue.
At the time, she also had an active warrant in North Carolina for similar charges that kept her under a hold in the county jail, said Shawn McCullers, her attorney.
“We called and talked to [officials in North Carolina], and they decided they wouldn’t extradite her, which is often the case for a bunch of reasons. We voiced our concerns about the frailty of her health,” McCullers said at the time in an interview with the AJC. Payne’s health has been a concern for several of the attorneys who have represented her over the years. She has documented health issues, they said, mostly related to old age, that support arguments to keep her out of jail.
Payne has a storied history as a jewelry thief, having stolen at least
$2 million worth of goods in her long career. A documentary, “The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne,” chronicles her exploits, which have spanned the globe from California to Monte Carlo.
The West Virginia native claims to have stolen her first diamond when she was in her 20s. She sold it and gave her mother the money to leave an abusive husband, she said. In later years, she refined her skills and at one point worked with a partner. But Payne has spent most of her golden years in and out of courts and jails and has said she has no money.
Over the decades, she has developed a pattern of serving short sentences, getting out for good behavior and getting right back to her next heist. Those who know her describe her as charming, but without remorse.
“I don’t have any regrets about stealing jewelry. I regret getting caught,” said Payne in the 2013 documentary about her six decades as a jewelry thie.
Payne’s path to Atlanta began after she served jail time in California for stealing a 1.5-carat diamond ring from a Macy’s store in San Diego.
She served half of a fiveyear sentence before returning to probation in Los Angeles. Then she picked up another shoplifting arrest in Palm Springs, pleaded guilty and got four years, said attorney Gretchen Von Helms, who has represented Payne on several occasions.
Payne got a split sentence, some time in a local jail and some time served under supervision, then in July 2015 she racked up another shoplifting charge at David Yurman in the Southpark area of Charlotte, where she was believed to have stolen a $33,000 engagement ring.
When officers took an arrest warrant to her home in California to pick her up, she was too sick and they wouldn’t take her in, Von Helms said. The warrant was outstanding when she was arrested at Phipps Plaza last year.
It’s unclear what brought Payne back to Atlanta or if she has other warrants.
Phone calls and emails to McCullers, the Atlanta attorney who previously represented her, were not returned.
What is clear is that Payne does much better when she is being monitored.
“She seems to do very well when she is being supervised and when she is tracked,” Von Helms said previously to the AJC. “Would a monitoring system be appropriate? That’s a question to be asked of someone who is charged with punishing her.”