Thirteen alleged do-it-yourself thieves were busted for shoplifting more than $2 million in merchandise from Home Depot stores in the largest retail theft operation in Queens to date, prosecutors said Thursday.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled the whopping 780-count indictment at the DA’s Kew Gardens office, surrounded by a table stacked with merchandise that included power tools, carbon monoxide detectors, insulation products, and more. Although the stack made up only 1% of what authorities recovered, they estimated that the displayed goods alone were worth more than $40,000.
Officials say 13 people were indicted for stealing and then reselling more than $2.2 million in loot from Home Depot stores throughout Queens and the Northeast U.S. Eleven of the 13 have been arrested and were arraigned on Wednesday on charges including first-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree conspiracy, and other offenses.
“This crew was amazingly cooperative and disciplined. If everyone worked as efficiently in this country, productivity would be at an all-time high,” DA Katz said.
The investigation was conducted members of the New York State police whom Hochul assigned to the Queens District Attorney’s office. The governor said the series of thefts was not victimless crimes — not only were the Home Depot stores victimized, but so were everyday shoppers, who literally paid the price through marked-up costs for everyday goods to offset shoplifting losses.
“The bottom line is there are people spending every week and now trying to figure out how to rip off other people. The result is your prices are higher than they ever should have been. That is a fact because stores have to figure out a way to absorb these costs. Billions of dollars every year are lost because of retail theft across our country,” Hochul said.
How the Queens retail theft ring was cracked
According to DA Katz, the crew generated over $2 million in hot merchandise over a 13-month period between August 2024 and September 2025. They hit Home Depot locations around Queens 319 times, sometimes on multiple times a day.
“They would steal products, put them in the cars, put them in the vehicles, and go to lunch. Then they’d come out and do another round of stealing from Home Depot, sometimes doing the same Home Depot four times in one day,” Katz said. “Then they’d go back, rinse and repeat the next day. It was very organized.”
Surveillance video shows one member of the crew distracting an employee while another person loaded up a gigantic hand truck and simply pushed it out of the business. Another incident showed a man breaking into a metal cage and pulling out power tools. Yet another incident showcases a man filling up a recycling container with products.
The amount of merchandise stolen in a single day ranged from about $1,800 to nearly $35,000.
In addition to thieving from stores in the Big Apple, the crew also hit Home Depots in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Maryland. However, Queens served as the epicenter where the products were sold.
Katz said they caught onto the scheme after investigators, in an unrelated investigation, spotted a truck unloading air conditioning units from Home Depot.
Across the investigation, 14 storage units were seized, and about eight vehicles were confiscated.
With operations like these both Katz and Hochul say they hope it could turn the tide on retail theft and bring products back out on shelves and out from behind metal cages.
