A Memphis man is behind bars after police say he arranged to buy a $27,000 Rolex from a Virginia seller at an East Memphis taco shop, then fled in the back seat of a waiting vehicle without paying a dime. Devonte Gullage was arrested at a Sandpiper Avenue home and now faces a felony theft charge tied to the missing luxury watch.
According to WREG, the seller had traveled from Virginia to meet Gullage in East Memphis on August 11 to complete the sale. Police say the seller let Gullage try on the Rolex inside the taco shop and even photographed him wearing it before Gullage claimed he needed to walk next door to a bank to withdraw the $27,000 in cash. Instead, according to the outlet's reporting, Gullage got into the back seat of a vehicle and took off, watch and all.
The seller told Gullage he planned to file a theft report, and paperwork for the Rolex had already changed hands before the deal fell apart. Investigators say Gullage later claimed a different story altogether, telling them the seller had actually given him the watch as collateral in what he described as a loan shark deal — a claim that has not been resolved and will likely be weighed as the case moves through Shelby County court.
Task Force Tracks Down the Getaway Car
Two days ago, on August 19, members of the Memphis SAFE Task Force located the vehicle used in the alleged getaway parked at a home in the 2600 block of Sandpiper Avenue, leading to Gullage's arrest at the residence. Investigators say they searched the home but did not find the Rolex inside. Police believe Gullage intentionally got rid of the watch, allegedly handing it off to an unknown individual before officers arrived.
Gullage was charged with theft of property valued between $10,000 and $60,000 and is being held on a $5,000 bond. Under Tennessee law, theft in that value range is a Class C felony, according to Justia Law, punishable by three to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The Memphis SAFE Task Force that tracked down Gullage's vehicle is a multi-agency initiative led by the U.S. Marshals Service, established by presidential memorandum in September 2025 to combine federal, state, and local law enforcement, along with the Tennessee National Guard, against violent and street crime in Memphis, per The White House. Between its launch and this past March, the task force had already logged 6,748 arrests and seized 1,095 illegal firearms across Memphis neighborhoods, according to a Memphis Safe Task Force update. The White House cited FBI crime statistics showing Memphis recorded the highest per-capita rate of violent crime and among the highest rates of major property crimes, including burglary and larceny, of any major U.S. city in 2024 — context federal officials point to in justifying the task force's broad mandate.
A National Surge in Stolen Luxury Watches
The alleged theft lands amid what industry trackers describe as a booming market for stolen timepieces. Luxury watch tracking database The Watch Register logged 10,000 watches as lost or stolen worldwide in 2025 alone — roughly one per hour — pushing its global database to 114,000 stolen watches valued at more than $2.2 billion, according to WatchPro. Rolex alone accounted for 51% of all watches registered as lost or stolen globally in 2025, per the same database.
The Watch Register also reported a 78% year-over-year jump in U.S. business clients and a 110% rise in stolen watches located for U.S. traders in 2025 compared with the year before, pointing to accelerating watch crime and resale-market laundering domestically. A June industry survey of 100 insurance loss adjusters, published by Insurance Edge, found high-value watch theft claims rose an average of 17% over three years, with 77% of adjusters reporting more defective-title claims from jewelers who unknowingly bought stolen watches — a pattern that helps explain why investigators suspect Gullage moved quickly to offload the Rolex.
Police Push Safer Meetup Spots for Big-Ticket Sales
Memphis Police have long warned people arranging private sales through online marketplaces to meet in well-lit public places or police precinct parking lots with security cameras, rather than more isolated commercial spots, according to WATN-TV. That guidance has taken on new urgency across the region: Hoodline previously reported that the Tipton County Sheriff's Office launched a 24/7 camera-monitored Safe Exchange Zone at its headquarters specifically to prevent online marketplace sales from turning into robberies. A taco shop parking lot, by contrast, offers none of those safeguards for a seller carrying a $27,000 watch.
This is not the first Memphis-area marketplace deal to end in an alleged theft this summer. Hoodline reported in July on a separate case in which a Facebook Marketplace transaction for a PlayStation 5 turned into a robbery, also resulting in felony charges. The Memphis SAFE Task Force has also been active in other high-profile cases, including a late-July operation that netted four suspects wanted in murder and child sex cases, and a New Year's Eve sweep that resulted in 25 arrests, including a suspected kidnapper and rapist.
Open questions remain in Gullage's case, including where the Rolex ended up, whether anyone assisted him in the alleged getaway, and how his claim that the watch was collateral for a loan shark deal will hold up as the case proceeds through Shelby County court.
