On this day in 1945, American gymnast and inventor George Nissen received a patent for a “tumbling device,” for which he later trademarked the term trampoline, inspired by the Spanish word for “diving board.”
My grandchildren are thanking him…. and us.
A Florida thief tried a novel way to hide evidence of a jewel heist by swallowing $770,000 worth of stolen Tiffany earrings. See the incriminating X-ray
A Florida jewelry thief swiped more than $700,000 in earrings last week and then swallowed the evidence hours before he was arrested for “what’s in my stomach,” officials said Wednesday.
Jaythan Gilder, 32, told employees at Tiffany & Co. in the Mall at Millenia at about 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 26 that he was a representative of an Orlando Magic basketball player before he was taken to a VIP room and shown several high-end pieces of jewelry, Orlando Police Detective Aaron Goss wrote in an arrest warrant.
Gilder was shown a pair of 4.86-carat diamond earrings worth $160,000, a pair of 8.19-carat diamond earrings worth $609,000 and a 5.61-carat diamond ring worth $587,000, the court document said. He then grabbed the three pieces of jewelry and struggled with employees before he dropped the ring and fled the store, according to Goss.
Mall security cameras captured images of Gilder leaving in a blue Mitsubishi Outlander that detectives traced to an Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Houston, the affidavit said. It said the Florida Highway Patrol spotted Gilder and the SUV at 7:55 p.m. on Interstate 10 in Tallahassee, about 300 miles northwest of Orlando, and “taking the fastest route” back to Texas.
“As he was being taken into custody, Gilder swallowed several items,” the affidavit said.
A scan of the suspect, taken at the Washington County Jail, found “foreign objects in his stomach,” Goss wrote.
“These foreign objects are suspected to be the Tiffany & Co. earrings taken in the robbery but will need to be collected … after they pass through Gilder’s system,” the affidavit said.
In jail, Gilder “spontaneously asked staff ‘Am I going to be charged with what’s in my stomach?'” Goss wrote.
As Gilder was sitting in the patrol car, an arresting trooper heard him say, “I should have thrown them out the window,” according to police.