Red herring... something else going on.
Device device = getDevice(ec,hwid,ppAppKey);
device.setLastReportedLongitude(new Double(json.get("lng").toString().replace("\"", "")));
device.setLastReportedLatitude(new Double(json.get("lat").toString().replace("\"", "")));
device.setDateModified(new DateTime());// I can remove this and it still fails.
ec.saveChanges();
Thoughts?