An X-ray of the $1.3 million earrings after being swallowed. Photo / Orlando Police Department
A man stole US$770,000 (NZD$1.3 million) worth of diamond earrings, then swallowed the jewellery before he was detained by state troopers later that day, Florida police say.
Jaythan Gilder, 32, of Houston was accused of stealing two pairs of earrings from a Tiffany & Co store in an Orlando shopping mall on February 26, fleeing the scene in a blue SUV and attempting to drive back to Texas by the fastest route.
Orlando police said in an affidavit that they identified Gilder as the suspect using surveillance footage and alerted the Florida Highway Patrol, which stopped him that night based on a traffic violation in Washington County, west of Tallahassee in the Panhandle. Gilder was detained for resisting investigation, at which point, police said, he swallowed several items.
According to the affidavit, Gilder was heard by a trooper saying in the police vehicle: “I should have thrown them out of the window.”
An X-ray scan of Gilder’s torso taken at the county jail revealed “foreign objects” in his digestive system, the affidavit said.
“These foreign objects are suspected to be the Tiffany & Co earrings taken in the robbery but will need to be collected by [the Washington County Sheriff’s Office] after they are passed through Gilder’s system before confirming,” the document said.
A photograph of the X-ray provided by the Orlando district attorney’s office showed the outline of an unusual shape lodged partway through Gilder’s digestive tract.
Asked on Thursday whether the earrings had been retrieved, the Orlando Police Department said it had no new information and referred to an older statement. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Orlando police spokeswoman Kaylee Bishop said she was checking with the lead detective on any updates.
Prosecutors said there was probable cause to charge Gilder with grand theft, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years’ imprisonment, and robbery with a mask. Court documents did not list an attorney for Gilder. The district attorney for Orlando did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
In police interviews, workers at the Tiffany & Co store in Orlando said a man entered the store and posed as the representative of an NBA player who wanted to purchase jewellery. After being led into a private room, the suspect grabbed two pairs of earrings worth $609,500 and $160,000, as well as a diamond ring valued at $587,000, police said. According to the store attendants, the two pairs of earrings weighed 8.19 carats and 4.86 carats.
According to the affidavit, surveillance footage showed a man, identified by police as Gilder, violently pushing and pulling a sliding-glass door, which failed to open. While attempting to prevent the thief’s escape, police said, a store worker was able to slap the ring out of his possession. The man was eventually able to open the door and make it to the mall’s parking lot, the police document said, and cited a store worker as saying the two pairs of earrings were taken.
Using surveillance footage, police obtained the licence plate number of the vehicle and identified it as a Texas rental. According to the affidavit, Gilder was detained by state troopers some 340 miles (547km) away on charges of resisting investigation.
According to the affidavit, Gilder asked workers at the Washington County Jail, “Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?”
The Orlando police affidavit noted that Gilder was previously charged with theft from a Tiffany & Co store in Texas in 2022. According to officials in Texas’ Montgomery County, a man with the same name and date of birth as Gilder was convicted in April of theft of property worth $30,000 to $150,000 and sentenced to five years in state prison. He was released on parole in November 2024, Kassidi Brown, an administrator at the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, said in a phone call on Thursday morning.