Deer Park Man Arrested in Home Depot Bomb Threat

A Deer Park man was arrested Wednesday night for allegedly planting a bomb at a Home Depot in Huntington, where he worked, last month.

Federal officials said that Daniel Sheehan, 50, planted the explosive device as part of a bigger $2 million extortion plot, in which he also threatened to place three other bombs at other stores. 

FBI agents arrested Sheehan at his home on Half Hollow Road on a charge of attempted extortion by use of an explosive device in the joint investigation conducted by the FBI and Suffolk Police Department, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Loretta E. Lynch, said.

Sheehan faces a 30 years mandatory minimum sentence and a maximum of life-sentence, if convicted, according to the U.S. attorney. 

According to the complaint, Sheehan allegedly sent an anonymous ransom demand letter to the Home Depot store located in Huntington, warning the store manager that he had hidden a bomb in the Home Depot’s lighting department as a demonstration of his ability to place a bomb in the store without detection. 

In his letter, Sheehan warned that if Home Depot did not pay a $2 million ransom, he would shut down all of Home Depot’s Long Island stores on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping day of the year, by detonating three pipe bombs, each armed with a pound of roofing nails, in three separate Home Depot locations. 

On October 15, law enforcement authorities located the operational pipe bomb in the Huntington Home Depot’s lighting department, moved it to a safe area, and rendered it harmless through a controlled detonation, Lynch said.

“As alleged in the criminal complaint, Sheehan put lives at risk and tried to hold the people of Long Island hostage to his extortionate demands.  He tried to negotiate with Home Depot, but failed to factor in the relentless determination of the dedicated law enforcement team that worked around the clock to foil his plot.  There is no bargaining to be had with human life, and the only payout Sheehan will receive will be the full measure of justice for his actions.  Sheehan’s arrest sends an unequivocal message that those who plot against our economy and the people of Long Island will be brought to justice,” Lynch said.