Jewel Thief Doris Payne Charged With Walmart Theft
Jewel Thief Doris Payne Charged With Walmart Theft, Payne, who is by turns charming and feisty, told NBC News that she simply forgot to pay for the items when she stopped by the store to pick up some medicine.
Jewel Thief Doris Payne Charged With Walmart Theft, Payne, who is by turns charming and feisty, told NBC News that she simply forgot to pay for the items when she stopped by the store to pick up some medicine.
"Thieving was the farthest thing from my mind," she said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
The octogenarian, whose career as an international bling bandit spans six decades, said she had taken some medicine that muddled her mind before she went shopping.
"It causes me to forget," she said.
She claimed that since she didn't have a basket, she dropped the items in a shopping bag and thought she told the cashier about them.
The police report tells a different story. It says a security officer at Walmart watched Payne pile items from the pharmacy department in her purse and then transfer other items from her shopping cart to her purse and a shopping bag.
The guard nabbed her as she left the store and the items — which totaled $86.22 — were returned to the store. Payne was taken to the City of Chamblee Jail, booked on a shoplifting charge and released.
Despite her past exploits, chronicled in a Netflix documentary, Payne insisted she didn't mean to steal anything from Walmart.
"I have a money card with $7,000 on it," she said, adding that she is in the midst of negotiating a book deal and a movie deal.
It's unclear if the arrest will land Payne in more hot water. In March, a judge sentenced her to 120 days of house arrest and banned her from malls in DeKalb County after she admitted stealing a $2,000 necklace from a store.
But she seemed unconcerned on Tuesday.
"For a minute, it looked like it was going to be bad," Payne said of her latest scrape with the law. "But I'm doing fine."
