Gov. Kathy Hochul and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced a 780-count indictment on Dec. 11 charging 13 people with running a sprawling organized retail-theft operation that stole more than $2.2 million in merchandise from Home Depot stores across nine states and resold it on the secondary market.

Prosecutors described one of the larger coordinated retail-theft takedowns in the borough’s history, built on months of surveillance and transaction records that tracked the crew from store to store and the stolen goods to alleged resellers.

A multi-state operation run like a business

According to the indictment, the ring carried out 319 separate theft incidents at 128 different Home Depot locations in New York and eight other states. The defendants allegedly targeted high-value, easy-to-resell items, then funneled the merchandise to “fences” — black-market resellers who moved the goods for profit.

Katz emphasized the methodical, almost clerical nature of the scheme. “The defendants took breaks for lunch and dinner, sometimes hitting the same Home Depot up to four times in one day,” she said in the announcement.

Of the 13 people charged, 11 had been arraigned as of the announcement; one defendant remained at large and another was expected to be arraigned later. The charges include first-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree conspiracy and related counts.

Alleged members of the theft crew face up to 25 years in prison if convicted; the alleged fences face up to 15 years.

State and local enforcement converge

The case is the product of a joint effort by the Queens DA, the NYPD and state authorities, reflecting a broader push against organized retail crime that has become a recurring theme in Albany and at City Hall.

“Since taking office, my highest priority has been driving down crime and keeping New Yorkers safe,” Hochul said.

The Home Depot indictment is one piece of a wider Queens strategy. Katz’s office has expanded its Merchants Business Improvement Program — a borough-wide initiative with the NYPD aimed at repeat shoplifting — and stood up specialized bureaus targeting violent crime and emerging threats, including a Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau and a Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau. In November 2025, that violent-crime bureau partnered with the NYPD on a 97-count indictment against 32 alleged members of the Bad-Co Ballout gang in Southeast Queens, described as the largest single-gang takedown in the borough’s history.

The retail-theft picture citywide

The indictment lands against a backdrop of improving topline numbers. Reported retail theft across New York City was down roughly 14% year-over-year as of December 2025, according to figures cited by the DA’s office — a decline officials attribute in part to dedicated retail-theft units and tighter coordination between major retailers and police.

But the Home Depot case underscores why aggregate declines don’t end the enforcement push: the losses driving the biggest prosecutions increasingly come from organized crews operating across state lines, not from one-off shoplifting. Those operations are harder to deter through store-level security and require the kind of multi-jurisdiction investigation reflected in the 780-count filing.

The charges are allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.

Verification

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the defendants charged with?
A 780-count indictment including first-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree conspiracy, announced Dec. 11, 2025 by Queens DA Melinda Katz and Gov. Kathy Hochul. Eleven of 13 defendants had been arraigned; one remained at large.
How much was stolen and from where?
More than $2.2 million in merchandise across 319 theft incidents at 128 Home Depot stores in New York and eight other states.
What sentences do the defendants face?
Up to 25 years in prison for alleged theft-crew members and up to 15 years for the alleged 'fences' who resold the goods, per the DA's office.
Is retail theft up or down in NYC?
As of December 2025, reported retail theft was down about 14% year-over-year citywide, per figures cited by the Queens DA's office, even as large organized-theft rings remain a prosecution priority.