Va. Repairman Swiped $170K From Meters

A repairman stole $170,000 in coins from parking meters in Alexandria, Va., during the past 12 months, the Washington Post reports. William Fell, 61, looted meters in the early hours of the morning before his maintenance shifts, police say. Wary of depositing his ill-gotten gains, Fell kept the coins his house, where police recovered them in an April 15 raid.

Fell, who had worked for the city for 16 years, was discovered because of the size of his theft—total revenue for Alexandria parking meters is only about $1 million a year. Officials were alerted to the crime when a hike in meter fees didn’t produce the expected revenue bump. Fell faces two counts of embezzlement by a public officer.
(More embezzlement stories.)