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After nine years on the run, the celebrated "dinnertime bandit", who stole jewellery worth US$5 million (NZ$6.6m), was arraigned on charges yesterday after a string of jewellery thefts from affluent homes in wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut.
Alan W Golder, 52, could face similar charges around the northeastern US. He did not enter a plea and was ordered held on a US$3m bond.
Prosecutors say Golder had been living in Belgium and France and has had seven aliases. Authorities have said Golder is also a suspect in 50 burglaries in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, totalling about US$5m in stolen jewellery.
Golder was extradited from Belgium on Thursday.
Greenwich police charged him with nearly 40 felony counts, including burglary, larceny, robbery and kidnapping, in the break-ins that occurred in the 1990s.
The thefts happened while Golder was on parole after serving 15 years in prison for the 1978 murder of New York real estate developer Lawrence Lever.
When Golder fled the US, he left behind a copy of a story proposal about his life titled Precious Metal: Confessions of a Rock'n'Roll Jewel Thief.
- AP
