A man pretending to represent a professional basketball player allegedly swallowed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stolen Tiffany jewelry, according to court documents.

A suspected thief gulped down two pairs of diamond earrings during his arrest on the side of a Florida Panhandle highway last week, detectives say, leaving them with the unenviable task of waiting to “collect” the Tiffany & Co. jewelry worth nearly $770,000.