You could say disgraced parking meter mechanic James Bagarozzo was given no quarter when he was sentenced to prison Friday for stealing $210,000 in coins from the very machines he was hired to fix.
Over more than eight years, Bagarozzo, 58, brought home 10,500lbs of quarters - which he stashed in his pockets, in a sack in his truck, in closets at his house - before dutifully rolling and packing them in $500 boxes to be exchanged for cash at banks on his lunch hour.
On Friday, a judge imposed a 2 1/2-year sentence on Bagarozzo, who blamed a gambling addiction and an illness he believed would kill him before he built a nest egg for his family.
From 2003 through 2011, the meter mechanic spent the first half of every workday stealing from 70 to 75 meters, prosecutors said.
