Contractor Sentenced For Stealing $1 Million From Hoboken Meters

HOBOKEN, N.J.—Brian Petaccio, a Toms River contractor who admitted to stealing more than $1 million in coins from Hoboken parking meters between 2005 and 2008, was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison, Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said.

Petaccio, 52 and the owner of United Textile Fabricators LLC, pleaded guilty in 2009 to second-degree theft by unlawful taking, for stealing approximately $1,175,000 in coins. 

On April 2, former Hoboken Parking Director John Corea was to seven years in state prison to second-degree official misconduct, admitting that he became aware that Petaccio and United Textile had stolen a large amount of the city’s parking revenues, according to the attorney general's office.

Corea also admitted he steered three separate contracts to United Textile, to collect and count coins from Hoboken's parking meters. 

After an audit in 2007 uncovered parking revenue shortfalls, Petaccio and his company returned approximately $575,000 to the city. In his guilty plea, however, Petaccio confessed that he took an additional $600,000 that was not reported to the city.

Corea and Petaccio both have to pay $300,000 in restitution to the city, for the $600,000 in revenue that was stolen.