Tennessee man charged with using movie-prop bills to buy $160,000 in jewelry from Downtown Crossing shop
BOSTON, August 13, 2025 – 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 announced.
DEVIN JOHNSON, 20, of Cordova was arraigned on July 22 in Central BMC on one count of larceny over $1200. Johnson was released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from the incident location. He will return to court September 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 including 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.
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.”
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. These suspects, like so many others, may have thought they got away with something. Like so many others, they thought wrong,” Hayden said.
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, along with concerns over the closure of several pharmacies serving minority communities in Boston.
All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Our office handles more than 20,000 cases a year. Nearly 160 assistant district attorneys practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Boston and Chelsea Juvenile Courts and the Supreme Judicial Court. Our office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs for anyone encountering the criminal justice system. We are committed to educating the public about our mission and services while focusing on crime prevention to keep the residents, workers and visitors of Suffolk County safe.
James Borghesani, Chief of Communications