Deer Park Man on Trial for Home Depot Bomb Threats

A Deer Park man accused last year of planting a bomb at a Huntington Home Depot and threatening to blow up three more bombs is on trial this week in federal court. 

Prosecutors say Daniel Sheehan, 50, planted the explosive device in October as part of a larger $2 million extortion plot. 

Newsday reported Thursday that Sheehan was caught by FBI agents after he was caught on a cell phone–that he thought was untraceable–obtaining equipment to carry the plot. 

According to the federal officials, 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 store'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. 

Sheehan, who worked at the Deer Park Home Depot, is charged with extortion and using a destructive device in the commission of a felony. If convicted, he faces 30 years in prison.