A Las Vegas man was sentenced to 4 years in jail Thursday for stealing over $715,000 in free change.

Richard Pena, 34, pulled off his thefts by imitating the worker of a coin-cashing firm and breaking into machines below the pretense of servicing them.

From Jan. 1, 2021, to his arrest on Dec. 22, 2021, Pena enacted a multistate scheme during which he impersonated an worker of an unspecified coin-cashing firm with machines in grocery shops and different business institutions.

Pena would enter a retailer below the pretense of upkeep work. Then he would break right into a machine, take the cash and go away. The ruse was repeated from shops close to his residence in Las Vegas all the way in which to a grocery retailer in Vancouver, Washington, the place an worker caught on and alerted police.

After Pena’s arrest, Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputies in Washington searched a lodge room and autos rented to him, discovering his disguise, thieves’ instruments and laundry hampers and luggage filled with coinage.

Law enforcement discovered round 1.5 million cash value greater than $133,000. Over the course of the scheme, Pena value the sufferer firm over $715,000.

Pena was indicted within the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on March 10, 2022, charging him with conspiring with others to move stolen cash and for transporting money he stole. Exactly a 12 months later, Pena pleaded responsible to the conspiracy cost.

In addition to his jail sentence, Pena may have three years of supervised parole after launch and is required to pay $582,000 in restitution.

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