BOSTON — A Tennessee man has been charged with using movie-prop counterfeit bills last April to buy $160,000 in high-end jewelry from a Downtown Crossing shop, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.
Devin Johnson, 20, of Cordova, Tennessee, was arraigned on July 22 in Central Boston Municipal Court on one count of larceny over $1200, Hayden said in a statement on Wednesday.
Johnson was released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from the incident location. He will return to court Sept. 23 for a pre-trial hearing.
On the afternoon of April 25, Boston police responded to a Temple Place jewelry shop where they learned that two days earlier, two men had purchased numerous items.
The items purchased included a rose gold and diamond bracelet worth $15,000, a rose gold and diamond chain worth $50,000, a Rolex Presidential 40mm watch worth $45,000, a Rolex Datejust watch worth $23,000, and a gold and diamond tennis chain worth $30,000.
The men paid $160,000 in cash. Two days later, when store personnel removed the money from a safe and put it through a money counter, they discovered it was counterfeit, Hayden said.
Detectives recognized the bills to be similar to those used on movie sets. The bills had “In Prop We Trust” written on them.
Detectives eventually identified Johnson and the second man through video surveillance from the shop and the Downtown Crossing area, including images of the rental white Ford Bronco secured under the second man’s name.
Detectives also tracked social media sites used by the two men, which showed stills and video of both of them displaying items identical to those purchased from the Temple Place jewelry shop.
On one site, the second suspect displayed a rose-colored watch, tagged Johnson, and posted “We made history bro,” prosecutors allege.
Detectives obtained arrest warrants in June. The second suspect has yet to be arraigned.
“The facts here outline an incredibly audacious scheme to purchase real jewelry—and hugely expensive jewelry at that—with phony money, which eventually came undone through thorough, tenacious work by Boston police detectives,“ Hayden said. ”These suspects, like so many others, may have thought they got away with something. Like so many others, they thought wrong.”
Hayden’s office, the Boston Police department, regional retailer groups and small business owners in 2024 launched the Safe Shopping Initiative, an effort to increase consumer safety and help store managers strategize responses to shoplifting and retail larcenies.
The initiative formed amid increasing national and local frustrations around retail crime.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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