By Silas Morgan
Source Orlando Sentinel
A man was arrested after possibly swallowing nearly $800,000 in jewelry he stole from an Orlando mall, according to police records.
According to an arrest affidavit, Jaythan Lawrence Gilder, 32, of Houston, Texas, stole two pairs of earrings — including a diamond earring — and attempted to steal a diamond ring amounting to a total value of $1.3 million from the Tiffany and Co. jewelry store at the Mall at Millenia earlier that day.
Gilder was initially arrested Feb. 26, and was later arrested Friday on an Orange County warrant on charges of robbery with a mask and first-degree grand theft and is currently in custody at the Orange County Jail, records show. Gilder was also previously charged with a near identical robbery/theft of a Tiffany and Co. in Woodlands Township, Texas from 2022 and 48 separate failure to appear warrants out of Colorado, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.
Records show a man later identified as Gilder entered the store and asked about the items, claiming he was negotiating their sale on behalf of an Orlando Magic player. Employees took him into a private room to view the items. After some time, he jumped up, grabbed the items and attempted to exit the room with them, the affidavit said.
An employee attempted to prevent Gilder from leaving and slapped the ring out of his hand, but Gilder was able to escape the room with the two pairs of earrings, which had a combined value of $769,500, and exit the store, records show. The ring is valued at $587,000.
Gilder pushed and pulled the employee’s arm in the altercation, with the employee sustaining visible injuries which were treated by the Orlando Fire Department.
The events were caught on security camera footage, records show.
Orlando Police Department officers responded to the scene around 2 p.m. Law enforcement was able to track Gilder to the parking lot and identified his car. The car’s license tag was picked up on on the Florida Turnpike North, Tallahassee, and 1-10, which police said was on the fastest route to Texas, where his car was rented out of, according to the affidavit. Florida Highway Patrol spotted him on I-10.
FHP conducted a traffic stop on Gilder’s vehicle because he was driving without his rear lights on and identified him. He resisted troopers during the stop and swallowed several items as he was taken into custody, according to the affidavit. He was booked into the Washington County Jail before being transferred to Orange County.
A live scan taken of his stomach at the jail showed several foreign items, which police suspect to be the stolen jewelry. The foreign items would need to be collected and examined once it passes through his system, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said Gilder asked staff at the Washington County Jail, “Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?” It also says the arresting FHP trooper heard Gilder say, “I should have thrown them out the window” while he was detained in the FHP vehicle.
Gilder refused to talk to OPD detectives when they traveled to Washington County to ask him questions and collect evidence, records show.
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