A Florida jewellery thief swiped greater than $700,000 in earrings final week after which swallowed the proof hours earlier than he was arrested for “what’s in my abdomen,” officers stated Wednesday.

Jaythan Gilder, 32, informed workers at Tiffany & Co. within the Mall at Millenia at about 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 26 that he was a consultant of an Orlando Magic basketball participant earlier than he was taken to a VIP room and proven a number of high-end items of knickknack, Orlando Police Detective Aaron Goss wrote in an arrest warrant.

Gilder was proven a pair of 4.86-carat diamond earrings value $160,000, a pair of 8.19-carat diamond earrings value $609,000 and a 5.61-carat diamond ring value $587,000, the court docket doc stated. He then grabbed the three items of knickknack and struggled with workers earlier than he dropped the ring and fled the shop, based on Goss.

Mall safety cameras captured pictures of Gilder leaving in a blue Mitsubishi Outlander that detectives traced to an Enterprise Lease-A-Automobile in Houston, the affidavit stated. It stated the Florida Freeway Patrol noticed Gilder and the SUV at 7:55 p.m. on Interstate 10 in Tallahassee, about 300 miles northwest of Orlando, and “taking the quickest route” again to Texas.

“As he was being taken into custody, Gilder swallowed a number of objects,” the affidavit stated.

A scan of the suspect, taken on the Washington County Jail, discovered “international objects in his abdomen,” Goss wrote.

“These international objects are suspected to be the Tiffany & Co. earrings taken within the theft however will should be collected … after they move via Gilder’s system,” the affidavit stated.

In jail, Gilder “spontaneously requested workers ‘Am I going to be charged with what’s in my abdomen?'” Goss wrote.

As Gilder was sitting within the patrol automobile, an arresting trooper heard him say, “I ought to have thrown them out the window,” based on police.

An Orlando police spokesperson declined remark Wednesday when requested whether or not the stolen earrings had been recovered.

Police have “no further info to share at the moment,” the division consultant stated.

The garments Gilder wore for the theft had been discovered within the SUV, police stated. He had “a chunk of white gauze on his nostril” on the retailer, and the bandage was discovered within the Outlander, police stated.

Gilder was booked on suspicion of grand theft and theft with a masks and was nonetheless in custody in Orange County on Wednesday.

The gauze on Gilder’s face did not cowl any wound, which means it was meant to “disguise his true face/id,” resulting in the “theft with a masks” cost, police stated.

It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not he had employed an lawyer or had one assigned to him. He pulled off “an analogous theft” at a Tiffany & Co. in 2022 in The Woodlands, Texas, and he has “48 separate warrants out of Colorado,” police stated in an announcement.