Police seek public's help in drugstore robberies
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By Brent Curtis Herald Staff - Published: January 7, 2009
Police released a composite sketch Tuesday and a national pharmaceutical organization is offering $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of a man believed to be behind three robberies carried out at pharmacies during the last week in Rutland County and Whitehall, N.Y..
The day after an unknown gunman held up a CVS pharmacy in Whitehall and a Rite Aid pharmacy in West Rutland, state police released a sketch of a man with a drawn face, a long, slightly crooked nose and a pronounced chin.
Descriptions of the man released after each robbery described him as between 5-feet, 9-inches and 6-feet, 3-inches tall in his late teens to early 20s. His close-cropped hair is described as being either dirty blonde or brown and his eyes are greenish-blue, according to police. Witnesses who talked to Rutland police said the man has a big nose.
In the robberies carried out on Monday, the man wore a Carhartt-style jacket with a hood, blue jeans and sneakers. In the Whitehall robbery but not the West Rutland robbery, he wore a baseball cap.
In the Rutland robbery, carried out on New Year's Eve at the Rite Aid on West Street, the man was described as wearing a black jacket.
In all three robberies, witnesses told police that the man walked up to the pharmacy counter where he handed over a note demanding bottles of pills. In Whitehall and West Rutland, the pills the robber demanded were OxyContin and oxycodone — powerful pain killers that can produce heroin-like highs when misused. City police declined to identify what pills the robber demanded at the Rutland Rite Aid.
In all three robberies, the man also displayed a black handgun tucked into the waistband of his pants.
State Police Detective Sgt. Albert Abdelnour said Tuesday that police had no suspects in the case although police did stop a car earlier in the day because the driver was acting "suspiciously" near the Rite Aid pharmacy in West Rutland. Abdelnour said the man was not arrested.
While police searched for clues, the RxPatrol-Crime Stoppers and the National Community Pharmacists Association announced that they will offer up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person — or persons — involved in the robberies.
Tips can be made by calling 1-888-479-8477 or by calling state police at 773-9101 or city police at 773-1816.
Hold-ups for drugs at pharmacies are nothing new and all too common in some parts of the country, according to Marty Irons, president of the Vermont Pharmacists Association.
"Back in the '70s, pharmacists were getting killed a lot by people after painkillers," he said.
The misuse of powerful, potentially addictive pharmaceutical drugs has forced most pharmacists to adopt procedures and expensive systems to safeguard themselves and their customers.
While Irons said he couldn't discuss the procedures or safeguards in place for fear of endangering employees or customers, he did say the security at pharmacies often far surpassed that present at similar retail stores.
"I've worked in some places where it was just amazing the security that we had," he said.
Since the robberies in Rutland began, Irons said he has been notifying pharmacists around the state, warning them to be more vigilant than usual.
Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.
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