Paying to park is something nobody likes to do. But the fact remains, at times it is necessary. If you live in New York City “fahget aboud it!”

This story comes to us from upstate New York, where theft from parking meters was driving local officials batty. But how much could someone steal from parking meters?

City of Buffalo officials have learned an important lesson about how loose change can add up, in this case to more than$210,000 pilfered over a period of eight years.

How could the theft from parking meters have gone on so long?

No Loyalty from Long-time Employees

An FBI investigation led to the arrests Monday of two parking meter mechanics, James V. Bagarozzo, 56, and Lawrence Charles, 39. Both men, longtime city employees, were charged with theft of government property.

The termination process has begun for both Bagarozzo, who began working for the city in 1973, and Charles, who has worked for the city since 1994. They are currently suspended without pay.

As for the huge amount of loose change they are accused of stealing — Bagarozzo, according to court papers, $210,000 since 2003 and Charles at least $3,363 during a 32-day period this fall—the question isn’t so much the details of the operation but how it could have gone unnoticed.

This was not an example of large-scale corruption involving major sums of money, which may help explain why it went on for so long. Apparently it involved just two people.

But there is something to be said for the persistence of Buffalo Parking Commissioner Kevin J. Helfer, appointed in June 2010 by Mayor Byron W. Brown. The investigation began in October 2010 when Helfer, a few months into the job, noticed a shortfall in revenue from the city’s roughly 1,200 single-head parking meters, versus the newer pay-and-display stations.

The meters were averaging out to 75 cents per day, far below the possible maximum of $4 to$9 per day.

The investigation utilized GPS devices and surveillance cameras. In pre-digital days, investigators might have had to laboriously mark individual coins and then see if they showed up in the employees’ possession. Whatever the method, the key is to notice the discrepancy in the first place. That shouldn’t have taken years, but better late than never.