BOSTON — A former Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority worker has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $450,000 from bus and trolley fare boxes.
The Associated Press reports that Stephen Fagerberg, 55, was caught when investigators planted marked bills in fare collection boxes Fagerberg was supposed to service. Those bills then ended up in his personal bank account.
Fagerberg was sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court to six months in jail, with the balance of a two-year sentence suspended for two years. He was also given two years of probation and ordered to pay $458,694 in restitution.
This is Massachusetts. By the time he has to go to jail they will have lowered his sentence to 2 years probation. He’ll say that he spent all the money and because he is now a criminal he has few if any job opportunities so they’ll forgive the $450,000 debt. Then whenever he needs some cash he’ll go to the coffee can he buried in the back yard and pull out a few thousand to meet his immediate needs.
That is an impressive haul. People have been charged and imprisoned locally for much much smaller amounts…
When I worked for the phone company in the Boston area the pay phone repair guys would sit there rolling quarters all day long. They all had Cadillac’s and owned outside companies. One owned a boat yard. They finally got caught with marked coins.
So how much else was stolen besides the guy who got caught?
My usual policy of wishing light treatment for first offenders doesn’t apply when the “first” offense is ongoing, day after day, year after year. Thus guy should have been more severely punished.