ATLANTA - An internationally known, 85-year-old jewel thief has been arrested after police say she slipped a pricey pair of earrings into her pocket at an upscale shopping mall in Atlanta.
A police report says Doris Payne, of Long Beach, California, stole a $690 pair of earrings Friday afternoon at the Saks Fifth Avenue at a mall in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Payne has a lawyer.
Police say a store security guard saw Payne on surveillance video, and she was caught shortly after leaving the store.
She faces a charge of theft by shoplifting and was booked into the Fulton County jail. Police say she is wanted for a similar offense in North Carolina.
The daughter of a West Virginia coal miner, Payne was raised in the Raleigh County community of Slab Fork. A world-renowned jewel thief, she told the Daily Mail in a 2005 interview that it all began with a little watch from a general store in Beckley when she was just a teen.
In 2014, attorney, Gretchen von Helms, described Payne in a phone interview.
"She's very charming and she's very beguiling," she said. "She looks all the world like a sophisticated lady."
- Staff, wire reports