PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A pharmacy technician working at a Rite Aid in Presque Isle was charged with stealing drugs and theft after she was arrested on July 12 by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Julie Condon, 46, of Easton is accused of stealing narcotics and supplying them to a police informant, according to Darrell Crandall, MDEA division commander.
Crandall said Tuesday that Condon was arrested at Rite Aid shortly after MDEA agents witnessed her supply a confidential informant with 25 hydrocodone tablets that she stole from the pharmacy. Once alerted by the MDEA, management at Rite Aid completed an internal audit and reported several thousand dosage units of hydrocodone and alprazolam missing, according to Crandall. Hydrocodone is a narcotic pain reliever and alprazolam is used to treat anxiety and pain disorders, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
It is alleged that Condon stole and supplied these drugs to more than one person during a period of six months or more, but the total amount of missing drugs was not available to MDEA investigators until Rite Aid officials completed their audit.
The Aroostook County district attorney’s office now has the case and will be handling the prosecution.
If convicted, Condon faces up to five years in prison.
Those medications have to be accounted for. It probably wasn’t easy for her to just take doses from the supply. I wonder if she was short changing people on their prescriptions. I heard of this being done elsewhere. And the person who reported the short changed prescription thought a member of her own family was dipping into her meds.
if she was shorting people on their prescriptions they would not be short the narcotics in the pharmacy…..although she may have been doing both……
I wonder how she managed to steal the medication. Did she take it from the pharmacy’s supply or steal it from prescriptions being filled for customers? I knew a person who had that happen. Originally she suspected a member of her own family was the thief.
Would be easier to steal from the customers because once it leaves the store they can’t dispute the amount of pills they recieved. BUT she’s just a tech so a pharmacist would be signing off on the final count, so I’m guessing it was from the store supply.
Unless all of them knew what was going on and she is just the patsy that is taking the fall. But I have to agree that hair style and picture likes like it was taken 30 yrs ago.
Totally agree. I didn’t see the picture until just now, it wasn’t up earlier when I read the article!
The pharmacy only did an audit after being alerted by MDEA? Shouldn’t this be done on a regular basis?
Not a very smart idea. They keep track of those prescription drugs just like they were bars of gold. Did she really think they wouldn’t notice? Tisk Tisk.
Uhhhh didn’t you read the article” Let me quote:
Rite Aid completed an internal audit and reported several thousand
dosage units of hydrocodone and alprazolam missing, according to
Crandall.
Got it?
um matt? they didn’t notice!
1 more arrest means 1 less supplier….
She will get her free methadone when she gets out.
Naw, they pop up like back hair, pull one, three more sprout…..
Only 1.7 million more to go. lol.
Wow, she must me embarrassed! And to think that this took place for six months… it makes you wonder if the robberies that have been taking place were helped from the inside. Oh and why is marijuana illegal again?? I would rather have a bunch of pot heads in society vs. Bathsalt & pill heads… #justsaying
WHAT IS OUR WORLD COMING TOO!!!! WE CAN’T EVEN TRUST THE PERSON COUNTING OUR PILLS. MAYBE THEY SHOULD LOOK DEEPER INTO WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE PHARMACY….JUST SAYING!!!
The lure of easy money is like a drug itself.
I don’t think an internal audit would reveal a shortage in prescriptions filled those would be out the door. Makes one wonder how in the world the internal inventory count could be so off. Especially on these particular drugs of choice.
If this is not stupidity of the upteenth degree, then I don’t know what it is!!
Is that a current mug shot, or does she have a previous record? Because I swear that photo was taken in 1978.
Its an old Maine license photo I think. I kind-of recognize the background.
Which came first, the thief or the drug addict?
Over-medication and over-self-medication is taking Maine down.
Maine is already down and it is in the Pits. Time to legalize all Drugs. Tax them and the Country’s and State’s budget problems are over today.
Legalize all drugs and every one will be so messed up no bodys gonna be working.. So, that will not solve anything…
Politimom and Miller, Yes I said legalize all drugs for 18 years old and older sell them over the counter. Including alcohol for 18 year old. Why isn’t every one falling down drunk now? They sell alcohol in many many stores and restaurants. Same with drugs, drugs are sold on almost every street corner in Maine. Why are not all your neighbors Junkies ? Maybe they are and you just don’t know it. Tax the drugs like alcohol and tobacco products and The USA and all States will be debt free in a matter of hours. I guess you don’t trust your neighbors judgement and their lack of control. They sold Heroin mixed with alcohol as recently as the 1920s in stores over the counter. The Country didn’t collapse.
I agree, but due to our NATO affiliation, and the good Mr. Anslinger, no NATO country can legalize all drugs. We started the policy, it would be hard to stray…..
well, everybody is on welfare already, so what;s the big deal?
You can’t really mean “all drugs.” Heroin, Crystal Meth, Bath Salts? The societal costs are too “high.”
Those who choose to be on them, are on them right now….
If convicted? I think you mean WHEN convicted.
She won’t be convicted of anything, slap on the hand and probation maybe. This isn’t the first time a rite aid tech was charged with theft. Nothing happened to the one in Madawaska who got caught.
You have to be convicted of a crime to get probation, mom.
“Rite Aid completed an internal audit and reported several thousand
dosage units of hydrocodone and alprazolam missing, according to
Crandall.”
They didn’t notice this til just now? I guess it’s RiteAid’s policy to not bother with ongoing inventories until -oh my we’re Shocked! – several thousand units go missing.
Probably too distracted coming up with even more ways to devise the worst retail store layouts in the pharmacy business.
Wow, even MORE crap happening in Presque Isle!!……
I’m a Med-tech in a nursing facility and if even ONE pill is missing, we go into TOTAL LOCK-DOWN!!!!! You’d better FIND that pill…..you can’t use the excuse “I dropped it on the floor”…..YOU FIND THAT PILL! We count EVERY CHANGE OF SHIFT!!!!!! If the count is off, somebody is in BIG TROUBLE!!!!!!
Now THAT sounds familiar and makes sense! If the customers had been shortchanged, how would an internal audit show it? It’s a thousand bloody doses in 6 months!! That’s a lot of customers at say 2-4 pills each. A monthly inventory matched up to the computer’s sale records would show the loss immediately, and since people are more apt to steal only certain drugs, a complete monthly audit shouldn’t be necessary. A very lackadaisical way of running the show…..
You’re right. In AL licensed facilties you have to count controlled substances daily when
used (weekly otherwise) and record in a bound book. One missing pill triggers an investigation in my place of employment. With all the pharmacy thefts one would think they would be monitoring this a bit more closely.
Seriously!!!!! No wonder every time i went to have my script Filled they were out… Not joking here… This Is the truth….
And you didn’t say anything why? Oh, Im just missing a couple of these meds Im getting for what is probably a good reason, but, Im not going to say anything. Im going to be off on my count, and in pain and probably dope sick, but, im not going to say anything. Yeah…. right.
No I was smarter then that I changed places…. haven’t delt with right aid for months now..
Changing places isn’t smarter…… Its your dismissive behavior which partly enabled this woman to continue stealing from people for months. You should have reported your missing medication and then switched, smarty pants.
No, it’s the woman’s behavior, alone, that is responsible for Rite Aide, P.I being out of Miller’s medication.
Is it? If she was giving people the incorrect medication, an it took 6 months to get caught, I think the people who were getting the incorrect medication are just as much to blame for their complacency as Rite Aide or her superiors. How can you think differently? Not acting is the same as allowing it to happen. Clearly these people knew they were being shorted. Yet apparently none of them said anything. I dont see how you can argue that its only the women who is to blame for her on going theft. Had someone spoken up it would have stopped earlier.
I think, correct me if I am wrong, people would go to get their medications and the tech would say the store is out of that particular medication. I have never counted my medication, didn’t think I needed to, but now with this stuff going on, I will count my meds right at the counter!
I’ll tell you what I count mine every time… They had never been off. Not once…
Diane is right… Plus, when ever you go there. There’s always alot of people working there. It’s very rare you deal with the same person.
First of all. She didn’t steal these meds from people. she stole from her employer. Which Is her problem. So, if you go to the store and there out of bread. the first thing your gonna think of is the workers stole the bread… Come on now…
Hey If there out there out.. Is not my problem to question them. Even if a person did? do you think there gonna give you any answers?
Plus, I don’t work for mdea, and i’m not a cop. Or the super visor who was in charge.. So, I really don’t care what she did… Thats her problem and thats that..
Actually the pharmacist is supposed to confirm her counts, I have to wonder what happened there.
Probably spending the proceeds at the slots
There is a larger story here somewhere, I have a feeling there are more people sweating this break through of events, seems quite a feat for a med tech.
I knew this woman was involved with drugs or did them just by looking at her. She has worked at the Rite-Aid pharmacy in Presque Isle for quite sometime and I am sure this has been going on longer than six months. She worked with my x-husband for about a year and I had my suspicions about her then. It is the pharmacist responsibility to check the bottles before giving them to the customer. Sounds like more were involved in this case.
makes you wonder….don’t these idiots realize that you always get caught when you do the wrong thing? If not now in this life then when you go before God…..
Not to mention Santa!Santa will know too!
I know this woman and she is a LOSER- her husband is a LOSER also- he went to Federal Prison for five year for the same exact thing….they most likely are in this together as well as her son probably is in on it too- he posts on facebook all the time about being on drugs etc….She is finally going to get what she’s got coming to her….well deserved and long overdue. Hope she finds prison comfortable!!! LOL
Her husband did not go to Federal prison for stealing pills, he was dealing crystal meth, and he also did not serve even close to 5 years in Federal prison. He was home completely within a little over 2 years
Its sad that Society has to realize that as long as a person is a “thought to be Public Informant” they never go to jail, while still getting away with Dealing drugs. This is where, Money Talks Bullshit Walks~ i understand that the PD may need their help in catching people, but its no excuse to allow certain people to continue getting away with What they have done all their life~ When people start realizing this also, maybe u wont be so quick to saying yay, one more off the streets, cuz like Billie Jo said, they serve little to no time, while i have met people who have no criminal record and got cought with one pill and done 5 yrs or more, Cuz they claim they chose not to as people call it “RAT” ~Just Sayin, this kinda thing is never rite, but it also wrong on alot of levels.
Oh, and in case anyone thinks that she will get off with probation….think again…It would be one thing if she just stole them for her own drug habit but alas, she SOLD them, which makes her a DEALER….she WILL go to prison.
Billie Jo- a DEALER is a DEALER is a DEALER….. and he went for more than two years…recheck your facts.
He only did 2 years….I was in the court room…I think Billie Jo was also .
I picked the man up from the halfway house in Portland and brought him home for a visit. He was sentenced to 5 years but did not serve all of them smarty pants. I’m not condoning any kind of dealing, I was just stating a fact, which you think you have them all. And yes Dave, I was in the courtroom, and if I could go back and do it all again, I would let his Butt walk home from PA before I would ever pick him up again.
ok Billie Jo- I concede- Must have been a Narc in Prison and got out early for good behavior- However, it doesnt change the fact that he went to prison for being a dealer, just as she will be doing in the near future- They make a good couple though! :)
She deserves the maximum sentence!