A Baldwin man was sentenced on Monday, Dec. 22, to up to four years in prison for a retail theft operation he ran employing individuals to steal merchandise from The Home Depot stores in Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens and Brooklyn between October 2021 and December 2023, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.
Manooj Heeralall pleaded guilty in August to grand larceny and he was sentenced Monday to one and 1/3 to four years in prison. Heeralall also forfeited assets, including a 2004 Nissan vehicle, items seized as a result of an executed search warrant at his home and $2,640 in cash.
Donnelly said that, according to the investigation, between March and December 2023, Heeralall employed people to steal items like circuit breakers, light switches and other equipment from dozens of The Home Depot locations in Nassau County, including Freeport, Levittown, Syosset, and Westbury, as well as stores located in Suffolk County, Queens and Brooklyn.
Heeralall would meet the individuals later to pick up the stolen merchandise and provide payment, the DA said.
Heeralall stored the merchandise in his home and garage and eventually shipped the stolen goods to Guyana for resale, she said.
Search warrants executed on Heeralall’s home on Dec. 7, 2023, seized nearly 1,000 circuit breakers, valued at $15,025, from inside the home and hundreds of pieces of equipment, including circular saw blades, outlets and more circuit breakers from inside his garage, Donnelly said.
Four garbage bins were also found in the garage, containing $9,576 worth of acrylic roof coating, rock spotlights, oscillating blades for grout and light switch wall plates, which brought the total value of the items seized to approximately $37,151.
