Man sentenced to federal prison for stealing from coin-cashing machines

A Las Vegas man was sentenced Thursday to four years in federal prison for disguising himself as a coin-cashing employee and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from machines in multiple states, including Washington.

Richard Anthony Pena, 34, was arrested in December 2021 in Clark County after stealing more than $5,000 in coins from the machine at the Brush Prairie WinCo, according to court records filed in Clark County Superior Court.

On Thursday, Pena was ordered to pay about $582,000 in restitution. He will also be on supervised release for three years, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 22, 2021, Pena used the ruse of being an employee servicing coin-cashing machines to break into machines in various stores and walk out with their coin vaults. He did this dozens of times in stores en route from his home in Las Vegas to Clark County, until a store employee saw Pena and called local law enforcement, the news release states.

Clark County sheriff’s deputies searched Pena’s rented vehicles and hotel room. They found clothing he wore to disguise himself, tools used to break into the machines, and laundry baskets and bags filled with about 1.5 million stolen coins, totaling more than $133,000, according to the news release.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Pena cost the victim coin-cashing company more than $715,000 in losses and damage to machines.

A federal grand jury in Portland returned an indictment March 10, 2022, charging Pena with conspiring with others to transport and transporting stolen money. He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on March 10 of this year.