DA: Landscaper Says 'Illegal Immigration' Made Him Smash Dump Truck Into Macy's, Steal ATM

A landscape contractor from Glen Cove told police that he and an accomplice stole a dump truck from a cemetery, smashed it through the Smith Haven Mall Macy’s and then fled with an ATM last month because of the “hard times” caused by the influx of immigrant labor, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

Garrett Landry, 26, will be arraigned on a grand jury indictment in Riverhead Friday morning stemming from the incident last month, Spota said.

According to Spota, Landry, the owner-operator of Garland Contracting, a Glen Cove firm specializing in landscape and masonry construction, told Suffolk detectives that “times are hard right now” and “I can’t compete with all the illegal immigration; they’re taking over and they work for nothing.”

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Landry, along with an accomplice who has yet to be caught, allegedly hot-wired and stole a dump truck from a Coram cemetery and then drove it to the Lake Grove mall, where the pair backed the truck through the glass doors of Macy’s in order to steal the ATM in the vestibule early on the morning of Dec. 30, Spota said.

“A good Samaritan, a cab driver, saw the truck and the door wreckage and dialed 911,” Spota said. “The cabbie said the two men had a chain wrapped around the ATM and loaded it onto the truck. The cabbie stayed on the phone with 911 and followed the truck from Route 347 to Nichols Road to Pond Path and then a dead-end side street where the defendant and his accomplice fled the scene on foot.”

Suffolk County Police Aviation and K-9 units found Landry near the abandoned dump truck, Spota said.

Landry posted $5,050 bail on Dec. 31. He faces 11 felony counts–including charges of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property–under the grand jury indictment, according to online court records.

SCDA Photo: Garrett Landry

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