A Las Vegas man was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for stealing over $715,000 in loose change.

Richard Pena, 34, pulled off his thefts by imitating the employee of a coin-cashing company and breaking into machines under the pretense of servicing them.

From Jan. 1, 2021, to his arrest on Dec. 22, 2021, Pena enacted a multistate scheme in which he impersonated an employee of an unspecified coin-cashing company with machines in grocery stores and other commercial establishments.

Pena would enter a store under the pretense of maintenance work. Then he would break into a machine, take the coins and leave. The ruse was repeated from stores near his home in Las Vegas all the way to a grocery store in Vancouver, Washington, where an employee caught on and alerted police.

After Pena’s arrest, Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputies in Washington searched a hotel room and vehicles rented to him, finding his disguise, thieves’ tools and laundry hampers and bags full of coinage.

Law enforcement found around 1.5 million coins worth more than $133,000. Over the course of the scheme, Pena cost the victim company over $715,000.

Pena was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on March 10, 2022, charging him with conspiring with others to transport stolen money and for transporting cash he stole. Exactly a year later, Pena pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.

In addition to his prison sentence, Pena will have three years of supervised parole after release and is required to pay $582,000 in restitution.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.