A Baldwin man was sentenced to up to four years in prison for running a retail theft operation, employing individuals to steal merchandise from The Home Depot stores in Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn between October 2021 and December 2023.
Between March and December 2023, Manooj Heeralall employed individuals to steal items such as 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. He then stored the merchandise in his home and garage and eventually shipped the stolen goods to Guyana for resale.
Search warrants executed on Heeralall’s home on December 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 Heeralall’s garage.
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.
The total value of the items seized was approximately $37,151.
Heeralall, 54, pleaded guilty on August 8, 2025, before Judge Howard Sturim to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (a Class D felony).
The defendant was sentenced on December 22, 2025 to 1-1/3 to four years in prison. He 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.
“Retail theft rings like the one run by this defendant strike at the heart of our local economy, targeting both large corporations and small businesses,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “This defendant orchestrated a criminal operation that sent crews into dozens of The Home Depot locations to steal a variety of construction and electrical materials, then stockpiled and shipped the stolen goods overseas for profit.”
Donnelly continued, “Thanks to the work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, his illegal enterprise was upended, and he is headed behind bars. We will continue to work with all our partners, in law enforcement and retail, to pursue organized theft rings that undermine honest businesses.”