Strange But True Stories from Across the Sunshine State
A complaint filed by police in Clearwater stated that John Elberson, 39, intended to appropriate the property of a local business. The business? Reign Ladies and Gents strip club, said to be the largest in Clearwater with some 7,000 square feet of floor space and VIP rooms. The property? $160 worth of lap dances. Elberson was arrested and charged with petty theft, spent 12 hours in jail, and was released by the Pinellas County Circuit Court without bond. The police report mentioned that Elberson, a father of five, appeared to be under the influence of alcohol but hadn’t taken any drugs.
Speaking of VIP rooms: “Detectives monitored Jaythan Gilder for more than a dozen days at the hospital before they were able to match the serial numbers on the jewelry with the items that were stolen from Tiffany & Co.” So read a late-March Facebook post from the Orlando police. On February 26, Gilder entered Tiffany & Co. in the Mall of Millenia, posing as a representative of an NBA player. He was escorted to a VIP room and shown a pair of $160,000 diamond earrings, another pair worth $609,000, and a $587,000 diamond ring. A botched attempt at stealing the jewelry led Gilder, who has 48 outstanding warrants in Colorado, to swallow the jewelry, which could be plainly seen in x-rays taken at the Washington County Jail. “After the diamonds were expelled from his system, we were able to bring them to Tiffany’s, where they were cleaned, and their master jeweler confirmed the inscription and serial numbers matched the stolen pieces,” said Detective Aaron Goss.
Recently, John Connaughton, 51, was arrested and charged with felony battery, criminal mischief and two counts of aggravated assault, according to court records. An arrest affidavit says Connaughton “threw urine in multiple bottles into the front door of a business,” Doors, Moulding and More in St. Petersburg, reportedly causing more than $1,000 in damage. Two men gave chase to the alleged perpetrator but backed off when he raised his skateboard over his head in a threatening manner. Connaughton, a registered sex offender, was being held in the custody of the Pinelas County Sheriff’s Office on a $22,500 bond.
“I did something dumb today and I understand it.” These are the words of Bok Academy North Principal Gregory Lewis after he was arrested for shoplifting at a Winter Haven Walmart. The educator was observed in the self-checkout line placing a bag of disposable foam plates between more expensive items in order to steal them. According to a police affidavit, he was caught attempting to “skip scanning” and abscond with a pack of light bulbs, bacon, and frozen butterfly shrimp totaling $37.45. The middle school principal, who admitted to the crime, told a Winter Haven police officer during his arrest that his friends had told him about the shoplifting tactic and that he wanted to try it out for himself. “We sit around talking, ‘Hey I did this.’ Let me try and see what I can get away with,” Lewis told an officer who was wearing a body camera during his arrest.
