Shraman Mitra
When the manager of a Home Depot store in Huntington, New York, received a call about a bomb being hidden in the lighting department, he immediately informed the authorities and the bomb squad. However, further investigation proved that local Daniel Patrick Sheehan planted the bomb as a part of a $2 million extortion scheme. Paramount+’s ‘FBI True: Home Depot Bomb Plot’ chronicles the shocking incident and follows how he was eventually brought to justice. Let’s delve into the details and find out where Daniel is at present, shall we?
Who is Daniel Patrick Sheehan?
Although little is known about Daniel Patrick Sheehan’s early life, he resided on New York’s Long Island during the bomb scare. Moreover, further investigation into the perpetrator revealed that while he had inside knowledge about the company since he worked at a Home Depot store in Deer Park, he and his wife had filed for bankruptcy in 1995 and 2000. Still, people who knew him claimed Daniel appeared to be a pretty friendly neighbor, and nothing seemed unusual. In fact, he was quite popular in the community, and most of his acquaintances were shocked when the police and FBI arrested him for his role in the crime.
According to reports, on October 15, 2015, a Home Depot store manager in Huntington received an anonymous note claiming a crudely made pipe bomb was hidden in the store’s lighting department. However, the sender mentioned that even though the explosive device was fully functional, it had no electronic trigger and could not be detonated remotely. Furthermore, the bomber threatened to set off three similarly made bombs in different home depot stores around the state, closing them all down for Black Friday if the manager did not send him $2 million in cash.
Alarmed, the manager immediately contacted the local police department, and authorities arrived to find a pipe bomb hidden carefully inside the lighting section. Yet, even though a bomb squad managed to disarm the explosive without any casualties, the bomber’s threat to close all Home Depot stores for Black Friday was still not averted. Interestingly, a couple of days after the initial bomb threat, the bomber called the Huntington Home Depot and reinstated his demands. Yet, it did not take the suspect long to lower his ransom amount to $1 million, even though he insisted he would cover himself with explosives when collecting the money.
By this time, the FBI and local police already began compiling a list of suspects, and they were sure that the perpetrator was an employee of Home Depot since he knew the company’s internal phone numbers. Moreover, when the bomber called the manager to complain about the presence of law enforcement personnel at the money drop, authorities traced the phone number to a burner phone purchased with cash from a local 7-Eleven. Thus, with the phone number already under surveillance, it did not take long for the FBI to zero in on Daniel Patrick Sheehan, and he was arrested after the burner phone used to make ransom calls was found to be in his possession.
Daniel Patrick Sheehan is Still Behind Bars
When presented in court, Daniel Patrick Sheehan pled not guilty to the charges against him. Nevertheless, the evidence was overwhelming, and the jury ultimately convicted him on a count each of extortion and using a destructive device to commit extortion. As a result, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in 2013. In the years following his sentencing, Daniel filed multiple petitions to overturn his conviction. Yet, the court rejected his pleas, and he remains behind bars at the Federal Correctional Institute in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
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