- Once the incriminating evidence is in your guts, it’ll take a while to get rid of it.
Oh crap, it’s the fuzz! When the cops are on your trail after a robbery, a smart thief will try to remove any incriminating evidence, from the stolen loot to tools of the dastardly trade.
There are plenty of ways you can get rid of the stuff. You could try to chuck some of it out of your escape vehicle’s window, some you may be able to destroy, while the rest you might try to hide somewhere.
Or you could swallow it, like this thief did.
Jaythan Gilder has been charged with robbing a Tiffany & Co. jewelry store in Florida. He got access to expensive rings and earrings by posing as an agent of an NBA player.
There was a tussle during the robbery, but in the end, Gilder escaped with two pairs of earrings worth more than $750,000. He didn’t get to enjoy with ill-gotten goods for long, as he was caught at a traffic stop later that night.
In his car, the cops found price tags of the earrings, but not the jewels themselves. They did notice that Gilder swallowed something just as he was being arrested.
He then audibly muttered that he should’ve thrown the things out the window instead. That’s probably because he was now carrying the proof of crimes in his stomach.
It’ll be hard to talk his way out of this one after the police inspect his droppings.
The Setup
According to news reports, Jaythan Gilder from Houston, Texas, had traveled to Orlando, Florida. On February 26, he allegedly entered a Tiffany & Co. jewelry store in the city.
However, he didn’t introduce himself by his real name. Instead, he reportedly gave the person at the counter the name of “Shawn.”
Gilder explained that he represented a player from the Orlando Magic NBA team. He claimed that he had come to negotiate a purchase in the basketball star’s name.
We can imagine dollar symbols appearing in the eyes of the jewelry store staff. They promptly escorted Gilder to the VIP room due to how valuable the items they were about to bring out were, the staff explained to the police.
In the VIP area, store associate Amit Nayee laid the items Gilder had requested in front of him. That included a diamond ring worth $587,000 and two pairs of earrings valued at $160,000 and $609,500.
The Robbery
The purchase negotiations soon broke down, however. Court documents state that Gilder suddenly jumped up from the chair he was sitting in and grabbed the jewelry.
With that, he turned to leave. But Nayee wasn’t about to just let him walk away with more than $1.3 million in jewelry, and attempted to stop Gilder.
That resulted in an altercation. Referencing surveillance camera footage, Gilder’s arrest affidavit states he tried “violently pushing and pulling” the VIP room doors before doing the same thing to Nayee’s arms, causing visible injuries.
During the fight, Gilder dropped the diamond ring as he managed to pry the doors open just enough to escape. He kept the earrings, though, and fled the scene without further attempts to stop him, as the store staff became afraid that he might be armed.
The Escape
After leaving the store, Gilder jumped into a blue 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander. He drove off, but he couldn’t avoid the sharp eye of the law.
Once the jewelry store had alerted the cops, they were able to follow Gilder’s trail by using public security cameras and toll road records. You might imagine an escaping jewelry thief would stick to less closely watched backroads, but hey — we’ve never stolen jewelry so what do we know.
You might also think that such a thief would try to drive carefully to not draw unwanted attention. That’s not what Gilder did, though, as that same night, he got stopped for a traffic violation.
At that point, the cops who pulled Gilder over didn’t yet recognize his car. However, Gilder refused to cooperate, and the police arrested him for resisting an officer.
The Swallowing
Just before he got handcuffs slapped on his wrists, the cops noticed that Gilder swallowed… Something. After another officer recognized him and his car, it became obvious what he had stuffed down his throat.
In the car, the cops found price tags for the stolen Tiffany earrings. Things really clicked into place, though, when Gilder allegedly said out loud, “I should’ve thrown them out the window.”
That’s because the stolen earrings, worth a combined $769,500, were now in his stomach. That was later confirmed with a live scan at the Washington County Jail, where the scanner showed several “foreign objects” in Gilder’s stomach.
He also reportedly asked the jail staff whether he was getting charged for what was in his stomach.
Well, you can bet he was. Gilder is facing felony charged for first-degree grand theft and robbery with a mask.
Now, the only question is whether the police were able to… Recover the earrings. Unfortunately, the court documents don’t say.