Man Pleads Guilty To Burglarizing Riverhead Lowe's 3X: DA

Jan 27, 2024

RIVERHEAD, NY — A man pleaded guilty Friday to burglarizing the Riverhead Lowe's home improvement store multiple times in 2021, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

According to an investigation and his own admissions during the plea, Terry Smith, 60, from Nov. 10, 2021 to Nov. 25, 2021, stole several items and burglarized Lowe's, located on Old Country Road in Riverhead, three times, the DA said.

On Nov. 10, Smith stole numerous home improvement items including hedge trimmers, spray gun kits, and a chainsaw, valued in excess of $3,000, from the store, Tierney said.

He was caught on surveillance video exiting the store without paying for the items, with the items in a store shopping cart, Tierney said.

Next, on Nov. 24, a Lowe's asset protection safety manager who had seen the surveillance video from the Nov. 10 theft spotted Smith in the store, Tierney said. The employee followed Smith throughout the store as he loaded two Dewalt power tools into a shopping cart, the DA said.

Smith then approached a store register with the items, placed the items on the register counter, but left without paying for them, Tierney said.

The next day, on Nov. 25, Smith was again caught on surveillance video sometime during the evening, breaking into the Lowe's by ramming an exterior and an interior sliding glass door with what appeared to be a steel beam and shattering them, the DA said.

Smith entered the sliding glass doors through the holes in the glass and proceeded to steal three Dewalt power tools, Tierney said. He was then identified by the asset protection safety manager as being the same person he'd observed on Nov.24; Smith was located and arrested wearing the same pants he was seen wearing in the surveillance video, Tierney said.

On Tuesday, Smith pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz to third-degree grand larceny, a felony, and third-degree burglary, a felony, Tierney said.

He is represented by John Halverson and is due back in court on June 14. Halverson could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Local retail stores lose money when items are stolen from their shelves and it's the law-abiding consumer that ends up paying for it. Businesses are forced to either raise the cost of their goods, start locking up everything on the aisles — or leave communities altogether," said Tierney. "These types of crimes have a damaging effect on our economy and local communities. We will not stand idly by and allow it. Those caught burglarizing and stealing from businesses, like this defendant, will go to jail."