BUCKSPORT, Maine — Bucksport police are investigating a robbery early Wednesday evening at the Rite Aid Pharmacy on U.S. Route 1 in which an unidentified man got away with prescription drugs.
The incident was reported about 6:45 p.m., Bucksport police Sgt. David Winchester said late Wednesday night. As of 10 p.m., the robber remained on the loose, he said.
Winchester said Bucksport police, who are being assisted by the Maine State Police and Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, are pursuing leads. He said that a police tracking dog also was brought to the crime scene.
According to Winchester, Rite Aid employees reported that the pharmacy had been robbed shortly before 7 p.m. He said the suspect was described as a thinly built male between 6 feet and 6 feet 3 inches tall who was wearing blue jeans and a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt.
The man’s face was concealed by a mask and he was carrying a cane, Winchester said. Police suspect that the cane might have been a prop because the suspect fled the pharmacy on foot.
The same pharmacy was held up on June 26, when a man wearing a camouflage jacket and whose face was covered with what appeared to be a surgical mask entered the store and demanded painkillers, which he received, Winchester said at the time.
Winchester said that police believe the suspect in that incident might have had an accomplice.
No one has been arrested in connection with that robbery, which remains under investigation.
About half of the pharmacy robberies in Maine this year have been at Rite Aids, according to year-to-date data collected at the end of May.
Winchester urged anyone with information about the robbery or the suspect to call Bucksport police at 469-7951. He said anonymous tips can be left by calling the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department’s tip line at 667-1401.
Of course they rob Rite Aid. And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why.
Rite Aid has a chain-wide policy of “non-intervention” and just allowing the robber to be given whatever it is that he wants. It is just like walking in to fill a prescription………only you don’t even have to pay for it.
I wonder what will happen when some drugged up nut walks into a Rite Aid with a weapon, goes off his nut completely and injures or kills a customer.
In my book if a business is going to make sure that no one tries to stop this stuff, then they are responsible for 100% of the safety of all the customers in the store. Someday, when someone gets hurt, I hope these liberal “non-interventionists’ get their pants sued off for failing to take reasonable precautions to ensure their customers safety.
A double barrel under the counter would change the equation quite quickly in my mind.
If it were my drugstore it would have one!
You’re right. These retail chains won’t do anything until a tech or a pharmacist gets shot and killed. When it happens, I hope they get sued for millions of dollars. These companies don’t care about their employees.
even then.
there was a pharmacy in new york(?) where the 4 people inside were executed by the robber, and yet the company’s policies still haven’t changed.
so don’t hold your breathe on that one.
Standing up to a robber is what will get someone killed. You have obviously never been in that situation before, because trust me when a gun is pointed at you, or someone tells you they have a gun, what are you going to do?? Yell “HES GOT A GUN”? or jump over the counter at him?? Congrats, if he actually has a gun, you just killed yourself and everyone in the general vicinity the druggie thinks he can hit. Stores have these policies for one reason only, they save TONS of lives, lives that could potentially be lost because someone has to play hero.
so? is the Rx or Tech sopose to say no?? what drugs are U on??????.Excuse me but they do care about their people..
What is more likely to happen is this: Some pharmacist that’s been held up five times finally takes enough. Against store and company policy he brings a 357 to work and unloads it on of these robbers armed with a note. Then the pharmacist gets convicted of murder and goes to jail. America is a great country.
amen!
I was a Rx Tech at Rite Aid back in 2000..Had no troubles . We were never instructed what to do if robbed.Countryboy8 the drugs are given to the person because its not worth lossing a life or getting hurt..BTW the robbers dont cause an uproar so chances are no other custermer knows whats going on..dont ya think?
My daughter is a chain pharmacist. Guess what-ALL of the major chains have the same policy. How many pharmacists have been hurt in Maine this year? Trust me-start getting all crazy and some 17 year old high school kid working at the front register will get hurt. Pharmacy robberies are like plane hijackings-they are media driven. Stop the coverage-these idiots are not that creative. Would you really want your kid to start a gun fight over some pills? What’s in that for her?
I am not surprised at all. The Bucksport COPS love those speed traps. They hide every where with the radar going just to get that traffic bust. But when it comes to serious Police work the Bucksport Police fall flat. Patrols, checking on stores, walking around town on a beat, forget it.
I’ve developed this totally innovative, high-tech, 100% effective method for sliding past all them Bucksport police who “love those speed traps.”
I call it “Driving at or under the speed limit.” Works like a charm every time and — haha! — sure shows them Bucksport coppers who is in control.
Why not have placebo pills ready to give to anyone demanding pain killers
That’s a good idea! except make the placebo pills be filled with ipecac. then you can just follow the trail to the suspects place.
With today’s technology, there must be a way to make a pill that when taken would turn the person blue, kind of like the exploding ink they use on bank robbers. The police wouldn’t have too much difficulty arresting the only Smurf walking around town.
or have electronic tracking in them. If your doctor can look at your upper GI with a pill cam, certainly something similar could be done for “robbery pills”
The reason being is probably that most junkies have a better grasp on what the real pills look like than probably some doctors or pharmacists do, and if they look at them, and they really are armed, well it don’t take a meat head to figure out what will happen next.
Can’t the police simply track down the alleged perpetrator based on the phone number he entered to receive his Wellness points?
kinda sounds like the guy that just robbed Shaws last week…
GIVE THEM FAKE DRUGS…THESE CHAIN STORES HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO HIRE ARMED GUARDS! THEN BUILD MORE PRISONS AND FORGET YOUR MEASLEY TAX DOLLARS YOU THINK YOU ALL PAY SO MUCH>>>GUESS SO, HALF THE STATE ARE PENNY PINCHERS! THEN YOU CAN BADMOUTH THE TOURIST’S AFTER THEY LEAVE, THEY ONLY SUPPORT YOUR A##ES. SO GLAD I DO NOT LIVE IN YOUR STATE!
so are we
THEN WHY ARE YOU READING THIS STATES PAPERS AND COMMENTING !!! JERK!
Poor drug sick person needs a hug and more of the tax dollars from hard working tax payers-Build more prisons and lock them up -Three strikes your out and Close Downeast facility cost toooo much to keep open and saves a handful of jobs.They can move to Milo too.
I guess it is time for Rite-Aid to take different measures to their policies and security.
Pharmacies are going to have to beef up their electronic security or this will just get worse via some type of escalation during a robbery. More Cameras! Overt and covert…door jamb cams; exterior parking cams; exterior building cams, maybe a fog bandit system or a dye pack in the “bandit pills”. http://www.howstuffworks.com/question671.htm what happens in a bank…
A pack is put in “safe” mode by attaching it to a special
magnetic plate. During a robbery, a teller tries to slip one of the dye
packs into the money bag without the thief noticing. While the thief is
still inside the bank, the dye pack remains dormant. Within the dye
package is a small radio
receiver that is activated when the pack is removed from the magnetic
plate. A small radio transmitter is mounted inside or near the door
frame of all entrances of the bank. Once the dye pack passes through the
door and receives the specific radio frequency signal, it activates.
The dye pack is usually set on a timer of 10 seconds or longer so that
the criminal is either in his getaway car or running a good distance
from the bank before the package explodes.
When the dye pack explodes, it releases an aerosol of red smoke, red dye (1-methylamino-anthraquinone) and, in some cases, tear gas.
When these chemical reactions take place, the package burns at a
temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius),
discouraging any attempts to remove the device from the bag. (Further
details of the chemical activation are “classified.”) Typically, the
explosion of the dye pack compels the thief to throw the bag, so the
bank gets its money back. In addition, the red dye frequently stains the
thief’s clothes and/or hands, making identification of the suspect
quite easy.
Substitute laxatives for Oxy’s, problem solved. Then the police can just go to the emergency room and wait for the clown to come in with what little brains he has hanging from his rectum.
just a thought….maybe its time to stop using rite aid pharmacies until they beef up security. im sure the loss of business would get them to jump on this!
It is interesting to see people blaming Rite-Aid for medication robberies. As I see it, a useless, no-good bum (in some cases, bums) is/are responsible for these medication robberies. Rite-Aid is doing what many pharmacies would do and that is to get the criminal out of the store as soon as possible without anyone being injured (much like a bank would do). The loss of a bottle of pills (no matter what the price) is a better outcome than an injured or dead customer or employee. And the people committing these robberies are getting caught in record numbers. Maybe the legal system should be blamed for not sentencing these miscreants more harshly.
If Rite-Aid does as some of the posters here have suggested and arm the pharmacies with weapons and an innocent bystander is injured or killed by the discharge of the weapon or property is damaged (which is probable), Rite-Aid will get blamed for that too (improperly trained employee, too big a weapon, etc.).
I don’t know what the answer is to preventing medication robberies, but I do know that blaming Rite-Aid for being robbed isn’t logical. It is WAY bigger than a Rite-Aid problem.