Man allegedly caught selling fake chains to Midd. Tennessee jewelry stores - WKRN News 2
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) - A Mt. Juliet jeweler ripped off on Tuesday solved his own case Wednesday when the alleged thief came back in the very next day.
Nick Hendricks of Prestige Jewelry in Mt. Juliet showed News 2 the video from Wednesday morning.
The video showed a customer, now identified as Bennie Cooksey, being arrested by the Mt. Juliet police after the 57-year-old Knoxville man allegedly sold a fake piece of jewelry.
"It brings great joy. But these are such good fakes, it will fool 90 percent of the good jewelers out there," said Hendricks.
The crime began Tuesday night when the 57-year-old Knoxville man sold a thick gold chain to one of Hendrick's employees.
It turns out the chain is a fake.
Nick says his clerk tested the gold with a computer and acid, and it passed. If it were real gold, the piece would be worth about $750.
He paid the man $360 for a piece of metal he estimates isn't worth $20.
The very next morning, unbelievably, Cooksey came back to prestige.
“He comes back. I wasn't open yet. He knocked on the door. I said we open at 10,” s aid Hendricks.
According to Hendricks, Cooksey left and went to The Jewelers in Lebanon trying to sell a similar fake chain.
Owner Shawn Smith recognized it's fake and turned Cooksey away. He sent the video to his fellow Wilson County jewelers as a warning.
Cooksey went right back to Hendricks’ store. Armed with the warning video from the Lebanon jewelry store, Hendricks stalled the alleged thief, calling the police.
"I'm thinking I got him I think I got him,” Nick says. 
Cooksey told police he didn't know the necklaces were fake and he was selling them for a friend.
According to Hendricks, the man said, "he was getting a second opinion on the chain not being real and I showed him the video from the other store where he was told it was definitely not real and then I learned he's been going around doing this same scam to almost every jewelry store and pawn shop that I know in the area."
Hendricks told News 2 that he's called multiple jewelry stores in Wilson County and even metro and they have all told him Bennie Cooksey was there selling chains.
Mt. Juliet police told News 2 they have no further investigations at this time.
Hendricks says the chains are being developed specifically for this kind of scam.
