Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Queens District Attorney Katz Announce Indictment Charges in $2.2 Million Organized Retail Theft Bust

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that 13 individuals have been charged in a 780-count indictment for operating a stolen goods and resale ring that targeted Home Depot locations in New York and eight other states. The individuals are facing grand larceny, conspiracy, and criminal possession of stolen property charges, including those included in the FY25 Enacted Budget that strengthened larceny laws by combining the value of merchandise stolen in separate incidents. In addition to these new crimes targeting organized retail theft, the FY25 Enacted Budget included a new crime specific to assault on retail workers, and more than $40 million for law enforcement secured by Governor Hochul. That funding created a dedicated Organized Retail Theft Task Force within the New York State Police, the work of which was integral to this case, and augmented efforts by district attorneys and local police departments to investigate and prosecute these cases.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 I think the District Attorney explained very clearly why we're here - to send one message to those brazen enough to undertake something of this scale here in the state of New York and other states. Your days are numbered. You commit these crimes, we're coming after you. You will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you'll regret the day you ever started - trying to rip off businesses like Home Depot and others across our country.

So I'm proud of what you've done here. We don't take for granted the work of our District Attorneys and our State Police and the investigators and the DA's staff and the local police. It takes a whole effort. But the bottom line is, there are people spending every waking hour trying to figure out how to rip off other people, and 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.

Now, here in the State of New York, we take this very seriously. That is why when we started to see an increase in retail theft, we jumped right on this. We passed laws that allowed people to aggregate more cases together. Even if it wasn't from the same store - to add up to the threshold to call it a felony instead of a misdemeanor. That way we could arrest many more people with higher charges and hold them longer, number one. That's number one.

Number two, resources. I talked to my district attorneys. I talked to Melinda Katz many times. What do you need? How can I fortify your operations? Well, it comes down to money. We allocated $40 million to support our District Attorneys, create a unit within the State Police, and I'm so proud of the work they do. Hiring over 100 people from the State Police to focus on this alone, but also giving you the resources, and you mentioned license plate readers and other technologies, drones, et cetera. A lot of that is coming from us investing money into local policing as well.

Since I've been Governor, we've invested $3 billion in fighting crime. Today, you see some of those results. We're not done. One crime is one too many, but we know what we're doing. We're leaning hard into this, and as a result of these changes, just in a very short time since we changed the laws and put money behind this effort, retail theft crimes are down 14 percent in the City and across the State of New York.

Now that is huge because the number was going up. We stopped deescalation, it flattened, and now it's declining. So we're going to continue. We believe in this mission and it is to keep people and other store patrons safe. As the DA mentioned, it is very unsettling to be in a store, whether it's a Duane Reed trying to get your toothpaste or at a Home Depot, it's unsettling to be in a store, not sure whether or not the people who are committing the crimes have weapons, whether they're going to assault the retail workers, which is why we increased our penalties on retail workers - assaults on them, but also any way we can, we're going to be always listening to our partners. What else do you need to be more effective? And we will make sure that the state is there for you.

So I want to thank everyone involved in this statewide. Our organized retail task force has recovered, including this, almost $4 million, and I'm proud of the work you've done. We've had 1,200 arrests, 2,200 charges, and as I mentioned, this happens when people work together for a common cause to let the bad guys know: you do this, you commit the crime, you'll do the time.

And as we enter this holiday season, people should walk into stores with that sense of security that they're not going to be caught in the crossfire or be involved in something that they never would've expected when they simply went out to get their kids some holiday gifts.

So, it's a new day in New York. Crime is down. We're working hard together and I'm proud of the work we're doing. We're going to continue doing it. And I want to thank again, my State Police, and I would like to call up at this time, Major James Browne, Detail Commander, New York State Police Special Investigations Unit. You're doing extraordinary work, but also to all the people in the DA's office, the staff, although who show up every single day. Your sole mission in life is to keep our people safe, and I'm eternally grateful for that as your governor. Thank you very much.

Contact the Governor's Press Office