Prosecutors Seek Prison Time for Organized Retail Theft Ring Targeting Northern California Home Depot Stores

SAN JOSE, California — A systematic retail theft ring that targeted nearly 200 Home Depot stores across Northern California is facing major legal consequences, as local prosecutors push for substantial prison sentences for the key perpetrators.

A Multi-County Criminal Operation

Between early January and April 2025, an organized retail theft crew engaged in a relentless campaign of shoplifting and burglary, targeting Home Depot locations across 11 Northern California counties. The crew hit stores in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo. The operation was highly organized, with the suspects frequently returning to the same locations. In one extreme case, a single Home Depot branch in Emeryville was hit 24 separate times.

Fencing and Recovery of Stolen Goods

The crew’s modus operandi involved walking into the home improvement stores, loading shopping carts with high-end power tools and professional-grade construction hardware, and exiting without paying. The stolen items were transported to a storage unit in South San Francisco before being fenced at flea markets in Oakland and San Jose. Following a tip from Home Depot's organized retail crime division, law enforcement executed search warrants, recovering more than 1,000 stolen items.

Prosecution Demands Prison Sentences

Four men—Adolfo Duarte Herrera, Wilmer Ayala, Daniel Resendiz, and Jose Martinez—were arrested and subsequently pleaded no contest to charges of grand theft, retail theft, receiving stolen property, and conspiracy. In August 2025, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen took a firm stance, urging the court to reject probation and sentence the defendants to state prison. Rosen emphasized that the scale of the thefts went far beyond simple shoplifting, calling the operation a 'determined, destructive, and dangerous thieving crew' that directly impacted retail workers and consumers alike.