Theft Ring Stealing Nearly $1 Million in Home Depot Merchandise Dismantled

After a 5-month investigation, Volusia County Sheriff’s detectives have broken apart a ring of thieves who have stolen nearly $1 million worth of high-end drills and power tools from Home Depot locations throughout Central Florida.

The thieves, referred to as the “Bay One Bandits” because that is where the drills are located in Home Depot, have been stealing and reselling the merchandise since 2014.

Detectives obtained a search warrant to search a South Daytona pawn shop located at 2550 S. Nova Road on Thursday. The owner of the pawn shop, Richard Hill, has been purchasing and selling the stolen merchandise using eBay and his store. Since April 2017, Hill has purchased stolen property 690.

“This is a million dollars in stolen property, coming into a little pawn shop in the front door and going out the back door, through the internet,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood told reporters Thursday. “I would say today (Hill) is a little bit incredulous that we even come and question his integrity and how these all fell into his lap.”

Eight warrants for racketeering charges were issued and each of the eight defendants is in custody.

Home Depot originally asked the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office for help in January 2018. Three stores in the vicinity had been reporting a lot of merchandise as being refunded and not sold. The locations of the stores included are:

2455 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach

1551 Dunlawton Avenue, Port Orange

10 Garden St, N, Palm Coast

The main suspects are Steven M. Proctor and Amelia C La Pallo. The two rounded up other co-conspirators to steal merchandise from the retail chain and return it for refunds.

Proctor and La Pallo were in two “booster teams.” One team has been in operation since August 2017 and is estimated to have stolen $100,000 in merchandise and the other team has stolen $814,000 worth of merchandise since September 2014.

The following are the arrests that have been made and the charges associated with those arrests:

• Proctor (DOB: 02/21/1984), six counts of dealing in stolen property;
• La Pallo (DOB: 12/04/1993), seven counts of dealing in stolen property, three counts of retail grand theft;
• Hill (DOB: 04/14/1967), one count each of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, four counts of dealing in stolen property;
• Auston T. Kalaczynski, (DOB: 04/28/1987), 17 counts of retail grand theft, one count of dealing in stolen property; in Orange County jail;
• Jason P. Paradis, (DOB: 05/19/1986), 17 counts of retail grand theft, two counts of dealing in stolen property; in Brevard County jail;
• Paul R. Paradis, (DOB: 08/27/1962), six counts of retail grand theft, two counts of dealing in stolen property;
• Daniel Conway, (DOB: 02/06/1970), two counts of retail grand theft, three counts of dealing in stolen property;
• Danielle M Duguay, (DOB: 09/16/1977), one count each of retail grand theft and dealing in stolen property.