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Orlando Police Recover Stolen Earrings After Unusual Theft
Orlando authorities have successfully retrieved two sets of earrings valued at a total of $769,500, nearly £600,000, following a bizarre incident involving an alleged thief who swallowed the items after committing the theft.
Jaythan Gilder, 32, reportedly ingested the Tiffany & Co. diamond earrings shortly after being apprehended on February 26. According to the Orlando Police Department, Gilder was closely monitored by detectives at a local hospital for over two weeks until the earrings were expelled from his body.
He is facing serious charges, including robbery with a mask and first-degree grand theft.
The Theft Incident
Investigators claim that Gilder impersonated an assistant for a National Basketball Association (NBA) player in order to access high-end jewellery within a VIP area of a Tiffany & Co. store in Orlando on the day of the incident. Allegedly, he created a distraction for the store employees before fleeing the premises with two pairs of earrings. In the process, he also dropped a diamond ring worth approximately $587,000.
Police reported that when they apprehended Gilder later that day, he was seen attempting to swallow several objects, believed to be the stolen earrings. Eyewitness accounts suggest that during transportation to jail, Gilder expressed regret, stating, “I should have thrown them out the window,” as reported by CBS News.
Hospital Monitoring and Recovery
As part of the investigation, authorities released an X-ray image indicating the presence of foreign objects in Gilder’s abdomen. The police transported him to a medical facility where he remained under observation until the earrings were recovered on March 12.
Detective Aaron Goss remarked on the unusual nature of the case, stating that it “quickly turned into a marathon, not a sprint.” Eventually, on March 12, police were able to recover the final pair of Tiffany earrings, after which a master jeweler at the store verified the serial numbers matched those of the stolen items.
Ongoing Legal Issues
Currently, Gilder is held at the Orange County Jail. His criminal background raises concerns, as he was previously implicated in a robbery at another Tiffany & Co. location in Texas in 2022. Moreover, it has been revealed that there are 48 outstanding warrants for his arrest in Colorado.
This incident not only highlights the lengths to which individuals may go to commit theft but also raises questions about security measures in high-end retail environments, particularly in dealing with distraction techniques employed by thieves.
Source
www.bbc.com