Buffalo Man Steals Over $210,000 — In Quarters

He blames a gambling addiction and an illness he believed would kill him before he built a nest egg for his family for what he did.

Parking meter mechanic James Bagarozzo will now be spending a couple years in prison for stealing over $210,000 dollars in quarters from meters around Buffalo.

According to The Guardian, Bagarozzo would break the machines purposely so that the quarters would not fall into the collection canister but instead end up on top, where he could gather them to put in his pockets.

Years and years of collecting the money and putting it in his pocket could have put his kids through college and paid off his mortgage. Instead, it fueled his gambling addiction and landed him in prison. At the time of his arrest, officers found over $40,000 in the ceiling of his bedroom, $4,100 in a dresser and $3,000 in quarters in closets, bags and boxes around the house.

On Friday, a judge gave him a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara said, "With all its problems, the last thing the city of Buffalo needs is employees who don't do what they're paid to do."