Men steal over $200,000 worth of ‘high-value’ items from Home Depot, Lowe’s, feds say
Two men teamed up to steal “high-value” items worth more than $200,000 off the shelves of The Home Depot and Lowe’s in several states, federal prosecutors said.
During a one-year spree involving two dozen thefts, the men drove to Home Depot and Lowe’s stores in the Northeast — where they grabbed products and put them in plastic bags before leaving, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire.
They targeted stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island in 2022 and 2023, court documents show.
After the thefts, the men returned to New York, where they live, with the stolen items, such as circuit breakers and batteries, according to prosecutors.
One of the men, a 24-year-old New York resident, was sentenced on Dec. 28 to one year and one month in prison on a charge of transporting stolen goods across state lines, the attorney’s office announced in a news release.
His court-appointed defense attorney, David M. Rothstein, declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Dec. 29.
“What (he) did — in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in high-end merchandise from home improvement retailers all over New England — drives up costs for consumers and businesses everywhere,” Jodi Cohen, FBI special agent in charge of the agency’s Boston division, said in a statement.
In a sentencing memo submitted on the man’s behalf, Rothstein wrote his client has accepted responsibility for his actions and “made a terrible series of mistakes.”
The man pleaded guilty to transportation of stolen goods on Sept. 15, according to prosecutors.
“The retail thefts seemed like an easy way to make money, with no one getting hurt. However, (he) made relatively little money, and he had no idea of the magnitude of the economic harm his conduct wrought on these businesses,” Rothstein wrote in the sentencing memo.
The other man was sentenced to two years in prison on Nov. 6 after he pleaded guilty to transportation of stolen goods on July 31, according to the attorney’s office.
McClatchy News contacted Eric Wolpin, his federal public defender, for comment on Dec. 29 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
According to prosecutors, the men tried to steal over $46,000 worth of additional products from Lowe’s on 11 separate occasions, but were unsuccessful.
In total, Lowe’s lost more than $170,000 from the thefts and Home Depot lost over $25,000, according to court documents.
Both men were ordered to pay the stores $204,969.02 in restitution, according to prosecutors and court records.
A Home Depot spokesperson declined comment on Dec. 29, and McClatchy News is awaiting a response from Lowe’s.
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 9:05 AM with the headline "Men steal over $200,000 worth of ‘high-value’ items from Home Depot, Lowe’s, feds say."
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