One Florida man is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from a Tiffany & Co. store in Orlando and swallowing the evidence.
On Feb. 26, Jaythan Lawrence Gilder, 32, allegedly impersonated a representative working for an Orlando Magic basketball player in order to gain access to the pricey jewelry, according to an arrest report from the Orlando Police Department.
Police said Gilder forced his way out of the store with a pair of 4.86 carat diamond earrings worth $160,000 and a pair of 8.19 carat diamond earrings worth $609,500. He was also accused of stealing a ring worth $587,000, which was later recovered.
Gilder’s car was stopped on Interstate 10 in Washington County, where he was arrested on a charge of resisting, as well as 48 outstanding warrants out of Colorado. A body scan conducted at the jail appeared to solve the mystery of the missing earrings; they were spotted in his stomach, according to the arrest report.
“These foreign objects are suspected to be the Tiffany & Co earrings taken in the robbery but will need to be collected by WCSO after they are passed through Gilder’s system prior to confirming,” the arrest report stated.
Gilder “spontaneously asked jail staff” if he was going to be “charged with what’s in my stomach,” according to the arrest report, and the arresting trooper reported hearing him say, “I should have thrown them out the window.”
He was charged with first-degree grand theft and robbery with a mask. A search of Gilder’s criminal history revealed he was charged with robbing another Tiffany & Co. store in Texas in 2022, police said.
