A man in Florida was arrested after he allegedly stole earrings worth more than $700,000 US and hid the evidence by swallowing them. The jewellery thief swiped the earrings from jewellery store Tiffany & Co. in a mall last week. The suspect, identified as 32-year-old Gilder, went to the Millenia store around 1:45 p.m. on February 26 under the pretence of being a representative of an Orlando Magic baseball player.
After hearing that he was a representative, the employees escorted him to a VIP room, according to an arrest warrant by Orlando Police Detective Aaron Goss. In the room, he was shown several exclusive pieces of jewellery, such as a 5.61-carat diamond ring worth $587,000, a pair of 8.19-carat diamond earrings worth $609,000, and a pair of 4.86-carat diamond earrings worth $160,000.
After seeing the expensive jewellery, he allegedly snatched three of them and tried to escape with them. Employees reportedly tried to stop him, and one person was allegedly injured during the struggle to stop him. He reportedly dropped the ring he had grabbed and fled the store with the other jewellery.
Gilder was filmed on surveillance cameras leaving the mall in a blue Mitsubishi Outlander. The authorities traced the vehicle to an establishment in Houston called Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The court document said that the Florida Highway Patrol saw Gilder “taking the fastest route” to Texas at 7:55 p.m.
When he was apprehended, it was discovered that he had swallowed multiple foreign items that were detected by a scan at the Washington County Jail. The police suspect that the foreign objects are the stolen high-end earrings from Tiffany & Co., but this will be confirmed after the items pass through his system.
Gilder was arrested on suspicion of grand theft and robbery with a mask. According to a report, he expressed regret while sitting in the patrol car by saying, “Should have thrown them out the window.” The police found the clothes he wore in the robbery in the SUV, along with a gauze that was on his nose. Since the gauze did not cover an injury, it is believed that the gauze was meant to hide or disguise his identity, leading him to be charged with robbery with a mask. He was in custody in Orange County up to Wednesday.
Gilder has a criminal record that includes a “similar robbery” at another Tiffany & Co. store in 2022 in The Woodlands, Texas. There are also “48 separate warrants out” for Gilder in Colorado, according to the authorities.
