A Harpersville man was charged Monday with stealing nearly $200,000 – all in quarters - from Brink's Company, the armored transport service where he had worked, federal authorities announced. 
 
 That's nearly 10,000 pounds of quarters – or about the weight of a hippo. 
 
 Stephen Lancaster Dennis, 49, was charged with one count of bank theft for stealing $196,000 belonging to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta while he worked as a money processing manager for Brink's at its Birmingham branch in early 2014, according to a joint statement from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton. 
 
 Dennis also entered a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office to plead guilty to the charge and repay $196,000 to Brink's. The armored service already has reimbursed the Federal Reserve Bank for the loss. 
 
 "This defendant may have thought he had quite a haul when he took nearly $200,000 in quarters from the Federal Reserve's coin storage at Brink's, but now he carries a heavier load. He must repay the money and face a federal sentence," Vance stated. 
 
 Stanton also added his twenty five cents. 
 
 "What Mr. Dennis may have thought was a nickel and dime theft was, in the end, the equivalent of a major bank heist." Stanton said. "Now, he will be a convicted felon who must repay all the stolen money." 
 
 According to the charging document and Dennis' plea agreement, he carried out the theft as follows: 
 
 Brink's stored U.S. currency and coin belonging to its customers, including the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, at Brink's facility in Birmingham. As a money processing manager at the facility, Dennis had access to the Federal Reserve Coin Inventory. As part of that inventory, quarters were stored in ballistic bags, each containing $50,000. The bags were stored on skids inside Brink's Coin Room. 
 
 An April 2014 audit of the Federal Reserve Coin Inventory revealed that four of the ballistic bags contained beads and only $1,000 in quarters. The quarters were placed so they would be visible through a plastic window in the neck of each bag. 
 
 An investigation revealed that on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, not a scheduled workday for Dennis, he entered Brink's and collected four empty skids and four empty ballistic bags, which he filled with beads. He then placed the skids and the bags inside the coin room. Between Jan. 1, 2014, and Feb. 20, 2014, his last day of employment at Brink's, Dennis stole the 784,000 quarters totaling $196,000. 
 
 The FBI investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Cornelius is prosecuting. ||||| A former security worker at Brink’s Company has been charged with stealing almost $200,000 worth of quarters, justice officials said Monday 
 
 Stephen Dennis, 49, of Harpersville, Alabama, is accused of taking the coins while working as a money processing manager, the Department of Justice said in a news release. 
 
 The 49-year-old has agreed to plead guilty to the charge and repay Brink’s, which has already reimbursed the coins’ owner, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, it said. 
 
 “What Mr. Dennis may have thought was a nickel and dime theft was, in the end, the equivalent of a major bank heist,” FBI Special Agent Roger C. Stanton said in the release. 
 
 An FBI investigation concluded that Dennis had replaced coins with beads in ballistic bags belonging to the Federal Reserve Coin Inventory. 
 
 An April 2014 audit found four bags contained beads and only $1,000 in quarters. The quarters were placed so they would be visible through a plastic window in the neck of each bag. 
 
 In total, Dennis swapped a total $196,000 worth of quarters for beads at the Brink’s facility in Birmingham, Alabama, investigators concluded — or 784,000 coins. 
 
 “This defendant may have thought he had quite a haul but now he carries a heavier load," U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said in the news release. "He must repay the money and face a federal sentence.” 
 
 The maximum penalty for bank theft is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
– An ex-money processing manager for Brink's Company in Alabama who had access to bags and bags of quarters swapped out coins for beads and made off with nearly $200,000 in 2014, per the FBI. Stephen Dennis, 49, has agreed to plead guilty and pay Brink's back for the money he's accused of stealing from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta while he was working in the armored transport service's Birmingham branch (Brink's has already paid the bank back), NBC News reports. Per a Justice Department press release, Dennis allegedly entered Brink's on a day he wasn't scheduled to work in February 2014, took four of the empty ballistic bags in which quarters are stored (each bag holds $50,000 in quarters), and filled them mostly with beads, as well as with just enough quarters so the coins could be seen in a see-through window on each bag. He's then said to have put the four bags in the coin room and, at some point, stolen 784,000 quarters—about 10,000 pounds' worth, or the weight of a large hippo, per AL.com—worth $196,000. An audit in April of that year found the bags only contained $1,000 each in real currency. "What Mr. Dennis may have thought was a nickel and dime theft was, in the end, the equivalent of a major bank heist," the FBI agent in charge of the case says in the release. "Now, he will be a convicted felon who must repay all the stolen money." The US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama piles it on with coined phrases, adding, "This defendant may have thought he had quite a haul … but now he carries a heavier load." That load would normally include the maximum penalty for bank theft, which is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though it's still unclear how Dennis' plea deal will affect his punishment. (A New York parking cop swiped $89,000 in coins from parking meters.)