A Las Vegas man will serve up to four years in a Colorado prison for stealing more than $65,000 in change from coin-cashing machines along Interstate 70.
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Richard Pena, 37, broke into 11 Coinstar kiosks inside grocery stores along the I-70 corridor between Grand Junction and metro Denver over four days in November 2021. The machines accept loose change and dispense vouchers for cash or gift cards.
Pena stole bins containing a total of $65,769.82 in coins during 11 separate burglaries, according to his indictment by Colorado’s statewide grand jury.
A person believed to be Pena was seen entering the stores with a hand dolly and, in at least some of the burglaries, observed using what appeared to be a key to open the Coinstar kiosks, according to the indictment. He removed large bins of coins and carted them out to his van, the indictment said.
“All Coinstar kiosks within the United States were keyed identically upon manufacture,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “This allows the same key to access every kiosk in the country.”
The company’s investigators discovered a pattern of these types of thefts that started in Southern California and, by late 2021, had netted more than $1 million in losses, according to the indictment.
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“Coinstar has been working to upgrade their kiosks to two-factor authentication,” prosecutors wrote.
The Colorado grand jury indicted Pena on 11 counts of third-degree burglary, a class 5 felony. He pleaded guilty to one count of class-4 felony theft for all 11 incidents, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said.
A Denver District Court judge ordered Pena to pay $77,044.06 in restitution to Coinstar for the stolen money and damage to its machines.
Pena is already serving a federal sentence in Oregon for similar thefts in other states. The Colorado thefts took place at stores in Denver, Adams, Jefferson, Eagle and Mesa counties.
“This case wasn’t pocket change — it was (a) real loss for businesses and communities along the I-70 corridor,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement Friday. “Through hard investigative work, prosecutors in the Special Prosecutions Unit were able to bring justice for this 2021 coin-cashing kiosk heist that stretched from Grand Junction to Thornton.”
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