ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — Old habits die hard.

A career criminal in Louisiana has been busted for the 60th time — and the third time in month — for shoplifting, police said.

Ellis Ray Kitchen, 68, was arrested on Wednesday after he bolted from a shopping mall with property he had stolen from one of the shops there, the Alexandria Police department said.

When officers arrived, Kitchen allegedly dropped what he had stolen and ran, but when they caught up with in the mall parking lot, they found other property he had taken from another business.

Four days earlier, Alexandria cops busted him at the same shopping mall for trying to walk off with a tool set without paying.

Following the second arrest, Kitchen, who police say appears to be homeless, was booked for the 60th time into the Rapides Parish Detention Center.

Kitchen had previously been busted on Christmas Eve for trying to walk out of a local shop in Alexandria with items he hadn’t paid for.

Kitchen’s rap sheet in the area dates back to at least 1991, parish records show. Many of the arrests have been for theft and Kitchen has been listed as a habitual offender since 2012.

He is also a level three registered sex offender. In 1981, he was convicted of raping a woman and in 1986 he sentenced to five years for attempting to rape a woman.