Men scammed Boston jeweler with $160K in movie prop cash, police say

A Tennessee man has been arrested and charged with scamming a Boston store by using movie prop cash to pay for $160,000 in jewelry.

Devin Johnson, 20, of Cordova, Tennessee, was arraigned July 22 in Boston on one count of larceny over $1,200 in connection with the April incident, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

On April 23, two men went to a jewelry store on Temple Place in Downtown Crossing and purchased multiple high-end items, including a rose gold and diamond bracelet worth $15,000, a rose gold and diamond chain worth $50,000, a Rolex Presidential 40mm movie worth $45,000, a Rolex Datejust movie worth $23,000 and a gold and diamond tennis chain worth $30,000, according to the DA’s office. They paid $160,000 in cash.

Two days later, when store employees opened the safe to put the cash through a money counter, they discovered that it was counterfeit and called the police.

The bills had “In Prop We Trust” written on them and were similar to those used on movie sets, authorities say.

Police identified the two men from surveillance footage from the shop and the surrounding area. The two men were seen in a white Ford Bronco that was rented in the name of the other suspect, who has not been publicly identified.

On social media, Johnson and the other suspect posted images and videos displaying items police say were “identical” to the ones purchased from the shop.

In one post, the second suspect tagged Johnson in an image of one of the watches and wrote, “We made history bro.”

“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,” said District Attorney Kevin Hayden in a statement. “These suspects, like so many others, may have thought they got away with something. Like so many others, they thought wrong.”

Johnson was released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from the store. He will return to court on Sept. 23.

Police obtained arrest warrants in June, but the second suspect has not yet been arraigned, according to the District Attorney’s Office.