Thursday, 4:30 PM
Police: 123 parking meters found in Cambridge apartment
By Brian R. Ballou and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
CAMBRIDGE -- Police allege that the stolen parking meters had almost overtaken Thomas Gannon's Plymouth Street apartment: stuffed into a closet, hidden under a blanket, and sitting in plain view in the living room.
Officers said that when they knocked on Gannon's door Monday night to serve an unrelated arrest warrant, they couldn't help but see parking meters piled in his second-floor apartment. In all, police said they carried out 123 meters that had been cut off poles in Cambridge and Somerville over the last year. The find left police shaking their heads.
"This does seem to be odd," Officer Frank Pasquarello, a spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department, said at a press conference this morning.
Gannon, 38, was arraigned today in Cambridge District Court on charges that included receiving stolen property and breaking into a depository. He was held on $5,000 cash bail.
Investigators said that the meters had been emptied of coins. Most of the meters came from Cambridge, but six were from Somerville.
Police had originally gone to Gannon's apartment Monday night to serve an arrest warrant for larceny and trespassing that originated with Everett police.
