Jaythan Gilder is accused of posing as a rep for an NBA player looking to buy diamonds when he made off with three Tiffany & Co jewels. The serial thief tried to hide his crime by swallowing the $770k stash
Adrian Zorzut
22:33, 24 Jun 2025
Jaythen was pulled over just outside Orlando, Florida
Jaythen was pulled over just outside Orlando, Florida(Image: Youtube/tsg600)
This is the insane moment a jewel thief tries to swallow $770k (£565k) worth of Tiffany & Co diamonds as police strangle him. Jaythan Gilder was pulled over a few hundred miles outside Orlando, Florida, in February following a tip off. Cops reported that a robbery taken place at Tiffany & Co earlier in the day.
The conniving fraudster had allegedly posed as a rep for an NBA player looking to buy diamonds and made off with two sets of diamond earrings worth $609,500 (£447607) and $160,000 (£117,501) and fled the store.
Footage from The Smoking Gun captured the tense moment police caught Gilder. The notorious jewel thief had been handcuffed and led to a police car when officers noticed he was talking with a closed mouth and moved objects around using his tongue.
One officer pulls Gilder aside and checks his mouth with his hands then with a torch. He calls on a second officer, who briefly looks before moving away.
Diamond Thief Arrested
An officer noticed Jaythan 'swallow something'(Image: Youtube/tsg600)
Gilder flinches as the officer tries to open his mouth again. Moments later, three officers force Gilder onto the police car and try forcing the jewels out of his mouth.
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One grabs his throat while another tries to uses his fist to guide the diamond out of Gilder's mouth. One officer shouts "you are about to get tased" after Golder refuses.
Moments later a second said: "He swallowed something." Police then find a white substance on the 32-year-old's lips, which he later said was a cold sore cream.
Cops searched Gilder's rental car and found price tags and earring cards for Tiffany & Co. He was arrested and taken to hospital where he reportedly refused an X-ray.
He was scanned in jail and "foreign objects" were found inside his body.
He was returned to hospital where he reportedly refused to take laxatives and claimed to be a practicing Muslim who would only eat after sundown and before sunrise because it was Ramadan.
Diamond Thief Arrested
Police found Tiffany earring cards in Jaythan's rental car(Image: Youtube/tsg600)
The diamonds "passed naturally" by mid June.
In mid-March officers found two stones after tracking Gilder's excrement, which turned out to be worthless.
Hours later he passed two diamonds allegedly stolen from Tiffany & Co and 'passed' the final diamond two days later on June 12.
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According to The Smoking Gun, the diamonds were returned to the company, but only after being given a rigorous clean. It is not clear if they have since been sold.
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