Global Courant
A Nevada man who posed as an ATM employee to steal thousands of dollars from appliances in supermarkets and other stores in several states was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison, prosecutors said.
Richard Pena, 34, dressed as a worker for a coin-changing company and pretended to be there to service the machines, then broke in and then walked out with the coin vaults, the That is what the American law firm in Oregon has said.
The prosecutor’s office said Pena “repeated this ruse dozens of times” to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars while traveling in a van from Las Vegas to Oregon.
Stolen coin vaults in the back of a rented U-Haul van used in the crime.U.S. Attorney, County of Oregon
When he was arrested in Washington state in December 2021, sheriff’s deputies found 1.5 million coins worth about $133,000 in bags and laundry baskets, according to court documents.
An alert store employee contacted police, leading to the arrest, prosecutors said.
Pena was indicted in March 2022 on charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. He agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in a plea deal in February this year, the records show.
Pena was also ordered to pay $581,858 in restitution, the US law firm said.
Machine damage and losses totaled $715,000, it said.
Some of the coins recovered by authorities.U.S. Attorney, County of Oregon
The burglaries occurred in 2021. Pena broke into machines from Las Vegas, where he lives, to the Portland, Oregon area, prosecutors wrote in a memo about the sentencing.
“This was no small change. The defendant typically stole thousands of dollars from each store and often smashed several machines a day,” the prosecutors wrote.
Federal public defenders wrote in a sentencing memo that Pena was motivated by an untreated substance abuse disorder and was using “a significant amount of methamphetamine daily” at the time of the crimes.
Prosecutors and lawyers agreed on the 48-month sentence and restitution.
