3 accused of gunpoint hijacking of Apple delivery truck at Americana Manhasset
Prosecutors say the heist began early on Jan. 3, when three masked men allegedly approached the two delivery workers with handguns and forced one into the back of the truck at gunpoint and zip-tied their hands.
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Three men are accused of carrying out an armed hijacking of a delivery truck parked outside the Apple Store at the Americana Manhasset mall, stealing more than $1.2 million in Apple products.
Alan Christhofer Cedeno-Ferrer, Michael Mejia-Nunez and Ennait Alexis Sirett-Padilla are charged with Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property, according to a recently unsealed federal indictment.
Prosecutors say the heist began early on Jan. 3, when three masked men allegedly approached the two delivery workers with handguns and forced one into the back of the truck at gunpoint and zip-tied their hands.
They then had the second victim move the truck behind an office building on Northern Boulevard where a Home Depot box truck, rented by Cedeno-Ferrer using a fake Pennsylvania driver’s license, was waiting.
Once the trucks were positioned together, prosecutors say the men transferred the shipment - MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and accessories - into the Home Depot truck. Afterward, the suspects shut the cargo doors on the delivery truck, leaving the workers inside, and left.
One of the victims was eventually able to break free and call 911. Nassau County police found the workers soon after.
The delivery truck had been scheduled to make stops at the Americana Manhasset mall, Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City and the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Station.
The stolen goods were then taken to a storage facility in Paterson, NJ. Surveillance footage there allegedly shows Mejia-Nunez wearing the same hat and Stranger Things sweatshirt he had been seen wearing earlier that day in an IHOP parking lot in Manhasset.
Law enforcement tracked the Home Depot truck through GPS data and roadway license plate reader technology.
The Home Depot truck was later found abandoned in the Bronx by authorities on Jan. 5. Officials say Cedeno-Ferrer’s fingerprints were found on a copy of the rental agreement found inside the truck.
"The offense conduct was violent, extremely dangerous and showed a complete disregard for public safety. After being terrorized and abducted by masked gunmen, the Victims were left for dead, zip-tied and locked in a freezing truck, with temperatures in the 20s," prosecutors wrote in the detention letter.
Prosecutors stated that all three defendants were born and raised in the Dominican Republic and entered the United States illegally. They have requested the court to enter a permanent order of detention on grounds they are a dangerous flight risk.
