Two men used wads of fake money to purchase a haul of very real jewelry from a shop in Boston this spring, prosecutors said Wednesday, announcing charges in the case.
The pair handed over $160,000 in cash — which detectives later determined had “In Prop We Trust” written on them — in exchange for two Rolex watches, two rose gold and diamond chains and more, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. The deception was only discovered two days after the April 25 sale, when someone at the store on Temple Place ran the bills through a money counter.
Boston police were able to track down both people, obtaining arrest warrants in June, according to prosecutors. The suspects showed off jewelry identical to what was taken in Boston on social media, with one tagging the other and writing, “We made history bro.”
One of the suspects has been identified as Devin Johnson, a 20-year-old from Cordova, Tennessee. He was in a Boston court on July 22 to face a larceny charge in the case, and was released on bail, prosecutors said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to the charge.
The Better Business Bureau says they’ve received reports of counterfeit items being sold on social media.
The other person hasn’t been identified — prosecutors said he hasn’t been arraigned, but didn’t say whether he’d been arrested.
In a statement, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden called it “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.”
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