Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Thief Swallows Diamonds After Heist at Iconic Jewelry Chain
Texas man’s desperate attempt to avoid arrest ends with a gut-wrenching decision to ingest earrings worth more than $700,000.
A Texas man was arrested after chowing down more than $700,000 in jewelry he swiped from a Florida Tiffany’s.
Investigators allege that Jaythan Gilder, 32, appeared late last month at a Tiffany store in The Mall of Millenia at Orlando, Florida, claiming that he was there to negotiate a purchase on behalf of an unnamed Orlando Magic player, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Smoking Gun.
Sales associates led Mr. Gilder to a private viewing room inside the store, where he was shown a diamond ring worth $587,000 and two pairs of diamond earrings worth $609,500 and $160,000, respectively.
Amid discussions about purchasing the pricey jewelry through a “wire transfer,” Mr. Gilder suddenly “jumped out of his seat” and snatched the items before dashing towards the door, according to the arrest report. A male employee got into a scuffle with the bandit as he struggled to open the doors.
“The suspect attempts to leave the VIP room by violently pushing and pulling the doors open, however, they are sliding glass doors so they do not open,” reads the affidavit. “This gives [the employee] time to attempt to stop him.”
The worker was able to recover the ring, but the thief was able to open the sliding doors just enough to make his getaway with the earrings. He was spotted on surveillance video hopping into an SUV he used as his getaway car.
Six hours later, Mr. Gilder was pulled over as he “was taking the fastest route” back to Texas, cops alleged in the affidavit.
As he was taken into custody, the thief “swallowed several items,” but a search of the car found the same clothes he wore at the Tiffany store and price tags that “exactly matched the items taken in the robbery.”
Mr. Gilder, who was arrested in 2022 for a similar robbery at a Tiffany store in the suburbs of Houston, suddenly asked his jailers while locked up, “Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?”
A scan done on his stomach contained “foreign objects” that cops believed were the stolen earrings.
“These foreign objects … will need to be collected by [cops] after they are passed through Gilder’s system,” the affidavit said.
“I should have thrown them out the window,” he allegedly lamented to police.
