A Texas man was found guilty Thursday of robbing a Tiffany & Co. store at Orlando’s high-end mall, a heist he tried to conceal by swallowing the jewelry he’d stolen, prosecutors said.
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Police recovered the jewelry once the merchandise had passed through his digestive system.
A jury found Jaythan Lawrence Gilder, 34, of Houston, Tx., guilty of robbery and grand theft after he stole jewelry from a Tiffany store at the Mall at Millenia on Feb. 26, 2025, according to a news release from the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.
Gilder stole two pairs of earrings, including a diamond earring, valued at nearly $770,000, and attempted to steal a diamond ring valued in total at $1.3 million from the store. He was later pulled over by police while he was driving and then swallowed the earrings — a decision he seems to have regretted later, court records show.
“I should have thrown them out the window,” the man reportedly said while he was detained in a Florida Highway Patrol vehicle.
Prosecutors said Thursday that police monitored Gilder for nearly two weeks before recovering the stolen jewelry he swallowed. He was also previously charged in a similar 2022 incident at a Tiffany & Co. in Woodlands Township, Texas, Gilder’s arrest affidavit shows.
In Orlando, a man later identified as Gilder entered the store and asked about some expensive jewelry, 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, his arrest affidavit said.
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An employee attempted to prevent Gilder from leaving and slapped the ring out of his hand, but Gilder was able to escape the room, and then the store, with the two pairs of earrings. 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. FHP later spotted him on Interstate 10, which police said was the fastest route to Texas, where the car he was driving had been rented, according to the affidavit.
Gilder resisted officers during a traffic 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 suspected at the time to be the stolen jewelry.
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 said the arresting trooper heard Gilder say, “I should have thrown them out the window” while he was detained in the FHP vehicle.
Gilder is currently in custody at the Orange County Jail, records show. A spokesperson for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office said his sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
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