Ex-parking meter worker charged with stealing $30K

[June 19, 2008]  NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey prosecutors say a former city worker whose job involved emptying parking meters stole more than $30,000 in coins from the machines. That equals a stack of quarters about 700 feet high.

An indictment handed up Wednesday against Rodney Dennis charges him with official misconduct and theft.

Authorities say the 52-year-old was supposed to deposit the coins in an Irvington police department account after removing them from the meters. He's accused of putting them in his own bank account instead during most of 2006.

Officials say a bank investigator became suspicious and alerted police. Dennis was fired in February.

His lawyer, Rubin Sinins, says Dennis will plead not guilty, but declined to comment further.

[Associated Press]

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