ELLSWORTH, Maine — Police here are on the hunt for a man who robbed a local pharmacy and threatened to “shoot the place up” if he wasn’t given the drugs he demanded.
The man entered the High Street Walgreens around 8:15 a.m., according to a statement from the Ellsworth Police Department. He walked to the pharmacy and handed an employee a note demanding the store’s complete supply of a certain prescription drug. He also told the worker that he’d “shoot the place up” if he didn’t get it.
The robber was given about $78 worth of the drug, said Lt. Harold Page in an interview. “That’s the store cost, though,” Page said. “God knows what the retail value is.”
Police would not disclose the kind of drug stolen, saying it may be a key piece of information in the investigation. They also said that though the robber threatened gun violence, there is no indication that he was armed with a weapon.
The robber is described as a white man with pale complexion, 5 feet, 10 inches tall. He was wearing a white baseball hat, a surgical mask, black windbreaker and gray pants. He was last seen running toward the Hampton Inn.
According to Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland, the Walgreens robbery on Thursday was the 35th pharmacy robbery this year. In all of 2011, there were only 28 pharmacy robberies.
Police urge anyone with information to call the department at 667-2133.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
Why encourage more robberies by announcing that the street value of the stolen drugs is some astronomical amount? Every time the media announces one of these successful robberies it just encourages more of the same.
@WESTSHORES:disqus they did not announce the street value.
From the article: The robber was given about $78 worth of the drug, said Lt. Harold Page in an interview.“That’s the store cost, though,” Page said.
Clearly the pharmacy’s cost is miniscule compared to street value. That’s the point the officer was making.
I’m well aware of what the officer stated.
“God know what the retail value is.” That’s pretty much the same thing to me as the exact retail value. My point is that this kind of talk just encourages the next guy.
Can someone please flag this? More stupid spam! I can’t do it from a tablet. Thanks!
Done
Thanks Kevin!
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I think this is the first robbery where they didnt name the drug. Almost sounds like it wasnt the usual oxy/hydro’s probably an ADHD drug or something. I couldnt imagine if I was in a store and it got robbed while I was there but it is looking like you have to suspect everyone in any store now.
Maybe he took all the viagra, it wouldn’t take long to find him. Hey is that a ……. in your shorts or are you happy to see me!
The Route 3 branch of the Camden National Bank in Ellsworth was closed this morning, reportedly because it had been robbed. Is this true? If so, why has nothing appeared in any of the local media, except for brief radio reports this morning? Was this bank robbery (if indeed there was one) related to the robbery at the Walgreen’s store?
I went there this morning thru the drive thru and it was open
EPD confirmed on their Facebook page after being asked that Camden National was NOT robbed today. They responded to a complaint, but it was not a robbery.
He’s probably from out of state. Ain’t no mainers around here wears a jacket like that in August.
He probably has tattoos on his arms that he is covering up with the jacket!
Clearly, marijuana is the drug we should be warring on….eye roll.
I agree….and myself and my neighbors are doing just that with a house in our neighborhood…lots of 3 minute car traffic all day long, same cars every day or other day……wont be long now……
Are you saying that you are for the war on marijuana? You do know the founding fathers advocated the use of the cannabis plant? That the government encouraged people to grow hemp for the great world wars? You do know that cannabis has helped our species thrive, grow and expand? You do know that its so closely related to us that we have plugs in our brain purpose built to work with the chemicals in marijuana, and that the brain actually produces its own from of cannabanoids? You do know all of that, right? And yet you seem to suggest you are happily waiting for a suspected dealer to get busted? How do you even know this person is selling pot? Why dont you just go over there and give them some good ol’ american vigilante justice if they are that bad?
MASSIVE IGNORANCE IS MASSIVE…. Go back to your Budwiser.
They need to get some laxatives made to look like popular drugs that can be swapped to robbers like this, then look for them in the nearest bathroom. :)
He asked for a complete supply and threatened violence. Its all insured. Im sure he got all of whatever he wanted. And no-one steals anything except opiates, so you can count on it being that. Followed up with… “The robber was given about $78 worth of the drug, said Lt. Harold Page in an interview. “That’s the store cost, though,” Page said. “God knows what the retail value is.”” and what that tells you is he got a load of drugs that costs people with medical need thousands of dollars in either cash or insurance and yet, costs the pharmacy nothing.
I personally do not care that he robbed the joint. I do care about the huge difference in value of these drugs. How is it reasonable that they can get so much of a drug for so little and charge people with medical need so much?
Theres a big problem in the country, for sure and it isnt just people robbing Big Pharma as not a lot of people do. Its big Pharma robbing everyone that is the real issue, here.
Pharmaceuticals are the most profitable industry in the world. It costs them nothing to make drugs. Nothing. But yet they can sell it for whatever they want. More so if its addictive drugs, which, they always are. Big Pharma wants to keep people on the legal juice. They dont care about addicts. Addicts bring them money. Addicts fuel the Drug War and fill the pockets of rich people with dirty money. Big Pharma is the largest drug dealer in all the world and they have everyone hooked on their gear. That all NEEDS to change NOW. We need to stop going to these places and stop out-sourcing our health and well being to some dudes sitting on top of a diamond tower who decide what is best for us.
Personally, I havnt been to a doctor in almost a decade. Guess what? I am fine.
Don’t confuse the retail value that the store charges insurance companies and what the street value is when these slugs sell it to drug addicts. There is a HUGE difference. These pharmacy chains work on volume-not big margins. In fact they lose money on many transaction in order to keep big insurance customers. Do the homework-it’s fact.
Good stuff. Yes Big Pharma is the deadliest, most evil, and legal mob in the country. They are the drug dealers that get a free ticket to rob the country and sell them snake poison to get them addicted. Yes, we need Big Pharma and they know it. They are the blame why we have robberies, addiction, fraud and waste in this country. When people wake up, they will realize what the problem is. Hopefully enough pharmacies get robbed that maybe one of Big Pharmas’ crack shacks will have to shut down. lol. Go natural people, it grows here.
these stores should invest in DECENT cameras to film these jerks…..I can’t believe that the winter coat and surgical mask raised no red flags in the parking lot before he (I and many other on EPD facebook believe this is a woman) entered the store.
How hard would it be to have a pill with a GPS chip in it?
Not hard if you want to take the time to load every pill in the store with one of those devices. The employees have seconds to give these people what they want.
How come these drug stores give the robbers real drugs?? Why not give them containers with fake pills in them???
Ellsworth is just going right down the tubes.