Man steals 123 parking meters

Ruuskado says: "Ahh Boston, now here's something worthy of an anti-terror alert. Thief steals over 100 parking meters and keeps them in his apartment. Oddly, during his arraignment, they let him sit behind a privacy screen."

Cambridge police arrested Thomas Gannon, 38, Monday night after they served an unrelated trespassing and larceny warrant at his Plymouth Street home. Detectives performing a routine safety sweep discovered the 123 stolen meters under beds, in closets and under blankets, said Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello.

(Above image is a thumbnail of a photo by Angela Rowlings)

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[#1 posted by Jason Louv , October 4, 2007 12:40 PM]

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

[#2 posted by mrfitz , October 4, 2007 1:11 PM]

This guy is my new hero. My old hero was the lady that went ahead of the meter maid and put money in these things.

[#3 posted by g.park , October 4, 2007 1:12 PM]

Jason, you beat me to it. Well done.

The real question is- how the hell do you steal one parking meter, let alone 122 more?

[#4 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 2:06 PM]

Detectives performing a routine safety sweep discovered the 123 stolen meters under beds, in closets and under blankets, said Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello.

What sort of routine safety sweep provides police access to these places in a person's home?

[#5 posted by Mark Hurst , October 4, 2007 2:06 PM]

Jason beat me to it: sounds just like Cool Hand Luke.

[#6 posted by AP , October 4, 2007 2:07 PM]

Wait a minute!

Detectives do routine safety sweeps of this guy's apartment?

[#7 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 2:19 PM]

Seriously, this is exactly the plot of a Mathnet episode. Starring Wayne Knight AKA Seinfeld's Newman as the thief.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 2:20 PM]

I had the exact same thought that AP did.

Sounds like the Cambridge police routinely search peoples houses?!

[#9 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 2:45 PM]

seriously: "routine safety sweep"? Uh...what?

[#10 posted by Suburbancowboy , October 4, 2007 2:46 PM]

Beaten to it, but I still insist that no man can eat 50 eggs.

[#11 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 3:29 PM]

@ AP

They found them "after they served an unrelated trespassing and larceny warrant at his Plymouth Street home."

I wish I could buy this man a beer!

[#12 posted by tommy , October 4, 2007 3:57 PM]

what is a "routine safety sweep"?

should we all be scared, parking meter collection or not..?

[#13 posted by Anonymous , October 4, 2007 8:03 PM]

"let" him sit behind a privacy screen? Who is that masked man..

[#14 posted by Jonathan Stampf , October 4, 2007 9:26 PM]

Little known fact: most municipalities collect NOTHING from coins insterted into parking meters. The private company that gets a contract to administer the meters keeps the nickels and dimes. The municipality is content to collect the revenue from the tickets issued for expired meters.
It's a sad society that would go bankrupt if everyone suddenly became absolutely law-obiding. (or is the bar set way too high in order to collect hidden taX?)

[#15 posted by wolfrider , October 5, 2007 5:22 AM]

seriously! it's not like the cops are just walking into random peoples houses and searching them. They served the dude a warrant on an unrelated charge which gives them the right to search his premises. This is no different than the dude who called the fire Dept when his house was on fire only to be arrested when 45 pot plants were found in his house.

[#16 posted by togetherless , October 5, 2007 9:33 AM]

now all i can think of is how badly i need a parking meter... i wonder what the fine is for stealing one. also, i can't wait to hear what this guy's sentence is