Oxycontin News Blog

Three unidentified men walked into a Walgreens at 2:29 a.m. Monday, bound a clerk and pharmacist by the hands, and made off with an unknown amount of prescription drugs, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

The robbery of the 24-hour store was the latest in what has become a rash of Manatee County pharmacy robberies in recent months. A sheriff's spokesman said one robbery is too many, but that the sheriff's office doesn't consider pharmacy robberies to be a "major problem" lately.

The hold-up Monday was the most recent among five pharmacy robberies reported in the Bradenton Herald over the past six months.

Early on Monday at the Walgreens, one of the suspects grabbed the clerk, who was in an aisle, bound her hands and left her on the floor. Moments later the gunman placed a gun to the back of the pharmacist's head and forced him to the ground while the drugs were being stolen.

There were no injuries and no cash or other merchandise were stolen. A police dog tried to track the suspects to no avail, according to a news release.

Sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow said there were no strong leads in the case.

Bristow said the suspects were not wearing masks. Authorities had not yet reviewed the store's security camera footage.

Four men wearing hooded sweatshirts and bandanas covering their faces robbed the CVS store in the 4300 block of Cortez Road on March 23. One of the men was armed, and they bound employees by their hands and struck a pharmacist in the head with a gun. The men stole cigarettes and prescription drugs.

Authorities say John F. Butler, 45, robbed the Holmes Beach CVS, 611 Manatee Ave., with a semi-automatic handgun shortly before 6 p.m. on Christmas day. He was later apprehended by authorities with the help of a local family.

Gerald Gregory, 20, was arrested in late November as a suspect in the robbery of the CVS in the 4300 block of Cortez Road. Officials say Gregory left the store with more than $8,500 in oxycodone, Oxycontin and alprasolam. He was later found dead from an overdose.

Another robber in early November wielded a knife at a clerk at the CVS in the 3700 block of 84th Avenue Circle East, demanding Oxycontin. The drug was locked away, so he demanded hydrocodone instead.

In an e-mail to the Herald, Walgreens spokeswoman Carol Hively wrote that robberies are not common in Walgreens stores, but that loss prevention employees work closely with local law enforcement to reduce the chance of crime.

"We have a number of security measures in our stores and our employees are trained so they know how to react in the event of a crime," Hively wrote.

CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis wrote in an e-mail that robbery is an industry-wide issue not unique to a single retailer or area of the country.

"We cooperate with law enforcement investigations of pharmacy robberies so that perpetrators are apprehended and future occurrences may be prevented," DeAngelis wrote. "We do not comment on the security policies and procedures we have in place so as not to undermine them."

Bristow said 24-hour pharmacies are given the same advice as other businesses: Remain alert.

"Obviously there's only so much you can do," Bristow said. "The business has a right to be open anytime they want to be open. It's our job to investigate and try to catch the bad guy."

Those with information about crimes can call Crimestoppers at (866) 634-TIPS.

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