Florida man convicted of robbing Orlando Tiffany store, then swallowing $760k in earrings

Right · 2A jury has found Jaythan Gilder guilty of robbery and grand theft over a February 2025 theft from a Tiffany & Co. store at the Mall at Millenia in Orlando, Florida. 1 2 Right · 2State Attorney Monique Worrell's office announced the verdict on Thursday; the jewellery was valued at over $760,000. 2 1 Right · 2Prosecutors say Gilder posed as a representative buying jewellery on behalf of a professional basketball player; the New York Post, citing WFLA, says the player was with the Orlando Magic. 2 1

Right · 1The New York Post, citing WFLA, reports he took two sets of earrings, a 4.86-carat set worth $160,000 and an 8.10-carat set worth $609,500. 1 Right · 2Prosecutors said he used force against a store employee as he fled; Breitbart, citing WESH, says he had been taken to a private room to view the jewellery and injured the employee when he ran. 1 2 Right · 2Florida Highway Patrol troopers stopped him on Interstate 10 outside Orlando. Video shows officers holding him down and repeatedly telling him to spit it out, yet the jewellery was not retrieved at the roadside. 1 2

Right · 1He was initially charged with resisting arrest but not theft, because the earrings had not been found. In jail he reportedly asked staff whether he would be charged "with what's in my stomach", and a trooper reportedly overheard him say, "I should have thrown them out the window." 1 Right · 2A body scan showed the earrings in his digestive tract. Authorities monitored him for nearly two weeks before the jewellery was recovered, and the Post says it was then cleaned by a Tiffany master jeweller and handed to a company security manager. 2 1 Right · 2Worrell said the case involved significant financial loss and threatened employee safety, and that the verdict sends a message that violence and theft will not be tolerated. Sentencing is scheduled for 7 December. 1 2