3 days ago
‘We made history bro'; 20-year-old Tennessee man arrested for buying $160,000 in high-end jewelry with prop money, police say
His attorney could not be reached for comment.
Johnson's partner has not been arraigned, prosecutors said.
On April 23, the two men allegedly purchased numerous expensive items from a jewelry shop on Temple Place, prosecutors said.
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The items included a rose gold and diamond bracelet worth $15,000, a rose gold and diamond chain worth $50,000, a Rolex Presidential watch worth $45,000, a Rolex Datejust watch worth $23,000, and a gold and diamond tennis chain worth $30,000, prosecutors said.
The store employee accepted the men's $160,000 cash payment. Store personnel learned the bills were counterfeit two days later, when they removed the cash from a safe and put it through a money counter, prosecutors said.
Detectives identified Johnson and the second man through surveillance video from the shop and by tracking a car rented under the second man's name, prosecutors said.
Detectives obtained arrest warrants for the men in June, prosecutors said.
'The facts here outline an incredibly audacious scheme to purchase real jewelry — and hugely expensive jewelry at that — with phony money,' said Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden. 'These suspects, like so many others, may have thought they got away with something. Like so many others, they thought wrong.'
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Johnson will appear in court for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 23, prosecutors said.
Truman Dickerson can be reached at
