BANGOR, Maine — A Rite Aid pharmacy employee slipped a GPS unit into the drugs given to a man who threatened violence when he robbed the Union Street drugstore Sunday afternoon, Susan Pope, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said Monday at his first court appearance.
Jeffrey Macy, 46, of Eastbrook was caught within minutes of the 3:50 p.m. Rite Aid robbery — the second of three pharmacy robberies reported Sunday in the Bangor area in just over an hour’s time.
The robber or robbers of the other two pharmacies — the Rite Aid on Wilson Street in Brewer and the Hannaford grocery store on Union Street in Bangor — have not been arrested.
Bangor police used the GPS signal to track Macy, who was driving a 1995 gold Pontiac Bonneville, onto Bangor Municipal Golf Course, where he unsuccessfully attempted to get away by driving around the 17th and 18th fairways. He eventually crashed into police and was arrested.
Macy was charged with five felonies — including Class A robbery, which carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison — and five misdemeanor charges.
Macy handed a note to the pharmacist demanding drugs and said he had a weapon, according to Pope. He also threatened the woman twice, saying that “she needed to be careful,” the prosecutor told District Court Judge Gregory Campbell.
The other felony charges against Macy are possession of scheduled drugs, criminal threatening, aggravated criminal mischief and trafficking in prison contraband. The misdemeanor charges are refusing to submit to arrest, operating under the influence of alcohol, refusing to stop for a police officer, possession of scheduled drugs, and an outstanding warrant, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said in a statement late Sunday.
Macy’s blood alcohol level was 0.13 percent when he was arrested, Pope said. The legal limit to operate a vehicle in Maine is 0.08 percent.
Campbell set Macy’s bail at $50,000 cash or $200,000 surety Monday afternoon during his first court appearance at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Pope requested the high cash bail because Macy’s criminal history dates back to 1987 and includes convictions for drug trafficking, assault and operating under the influence of intoxicants.
Macy, through Bangor attorney Benjamin Fowler, told Campbell that he could not afford the high bail.
“This is a very serious charge and Mr. Macy has an extensive criminal record,” the judge responded. “The Bangor area recently has been plagued with these drug-related robberies from Rite Aid pharmacies. It is important that people understand these kinds of robberies result in serious charges and a high bail.”
Pharmacy robberies in Maine, which were virtually nonexistent several years ago, have increased dramatically over the last four years, jumping from just two in 2008 to 24 last year.
The three pharmacy holdups in Bangor and Brewer on Sunday mark the 41st, 42nd and 43rd such robberies or attempted robberies in the state this year — almost double last year’s figure with three months still to go for 2012. Rite Aid, which has 79 stores in Maine, has been hit by robbers numerous times this year .
“The situation in Maine is an anomaly for us,” Rite Aid spokeswoman Ashley Flower said Monday. “There is a great deal of concern.”
Rite Aid has invested “millions and millions of dollars in technology and safety measures” at its stores in Maine and elsewhere, she said, and the incidence of robberies in other parts of the country has decreased. But the situation in Maine is just the opposite, she added.
Each Rite Aid pharmacy has robbery protocols in place and employees work closely with local law enforcement whenever holdups occur, according to Flower.
“We have a variety of measures in place … to provide an environment that is safe for our employees to work and for customers to shop,” she said in May when discussing the high incidence of robberies at Rite Aid pharmacies in Maine.
“We do take these robberies very seriously — each and every one,” Flower said Monday.
She declined to discuss the specifics of any security measures in use by company employees — including the GPS device used Sunday — but did say, “There is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Police continue to investigate the two unsolved pharmacy robberies reported Sunday afternoon — one at the Rite Aid on Wilson Street at 3:45 p.m. and the other at the Union Street Hannaford pharmacy, reported at 5:05 p.m.
“They’re working on identifying suspects,” Bangor police Sgt. Ed Potter said Monday afternoon. “It’s not over yet. There is more to be done.”
The Brewer Rite Aid was robbed by a white man man in his 30s described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall with an average build and wearing a blue hooded jacket, Deputy Chief Jason Moffitt of the Brewer police said Sunday.
The robbery of the Hannaford pharmacy was recorded on video surveillance cameras. The robber is described as a white man in his mid-30s, with salt-and-pepper hair and no facial hair, a Bangor police officer said.
Police believed the man, who was wearing a blue sweatshirt and an orange hat, left in a purple Chevy Malibu or Chevy Cobalt. He gave the pharmacy clerk a note saying he had a gun and wanted oxycodone.
The similarities in the descriptions of the robbers of the Bangor Hannaford and the Brewer Rite Aid led police to consider the possibility that both crimes were committed by the same man, Moffitt said.
“We don’t know if [they are] related,” he said Monday. “We’re looking at all the possibilities.”
This will continue until someone is severely hurt or killed. Then the Governor will have the National Guard posted in front of these stores. In the meantime our State is flooded with dangerous drugs. We tried nice- it’s time to show some of these thugs some toughness.
They caught the suspect. Now if found guilty a judge will be able to make an example here. If the D A’s office makes a plea deal we can vote Mr. Almy out of office. Now if we could elect our Judges we could get rid of the ones soft on crime.
Only problem is, the judges have a restricted length of time they can issue to a criminal for any set crime. They cannot go over this, much as they probably would like to. However there are a lot of sentences given then suspended to a month or two that should be addressed in the courts. There is no reason why they should do this and it certainly does not show any attempt to punish the wrongdoer and everyone involved gets a big laugh out of that. Somehow these laws have to change, plea bargaining has to be restricted, not the sentences!!! CHANGE THE LAWS!!!!
Well actually they can go over it if they get permission from higher up. I seen it done in a robbery case last month. nine years higher than expected
True but, how often in the state do you see a judge hand out the maximum sentence? Not very often at all. That is the point.
I wish we could find some judges that would be hard on the 1% Banksters that stole trillions from us. They did much more harm to us than any small town criminal that faces huge jail terms for his crime. But that will never happen.
Maybe it is time to arm the pharmacists and see how many more robberies happen after one of these idiots gets shot. If I were the CEO of Rite Aid I would be putting better security in place.
What about a bullet proof glass that all they would half to do is push a button an it would come up in 2 seconds
Two seconds is a LONG time.
No its not when you count you go 1,000 1 1,000 2
Yeah, and when an innocent bystander is shot, there will be a feast in court.
My daughter is a pharmacist with a new baby. If she were your daughter would you want her shooting it out with these druggies?
If I have to encounter somebody with a gun (heck, even if the bad guy doesn’t have a gun), then yes, I would prefer to have my own gun……call me crazy.
You think the day won’t come where an armed druggy loser doesn’t get the pills AND then pulls the gun? Maybe the pharmacist can then just “talk him through his feelings.”
and whether your daughter has a new baby or not is irrelevant. You should want her as protected as possible in this crazy world.
Hmm. Always put up with Bangor taxes because it was a safe place to live. This is happening too often not to be a growing trend. Might be time to leave.
And it is still a very safe place to live. When I lived in New Mexico for some unknown reason Albuquerque had a lot of bank robberies and to this day they still do. It seems every single day another bank gets robbed in Albuquerque.
Maine is the safest state to live in so if you desire to move, go ahead. You are still going to have crime no matter where you life, unless you live in the mountains all by yourself and never leave your cabin.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2010/10/18/business/bangor-crime-rate-highest-in-the-state/
I don’t think I mentioned moving out of state. Many of the towns that surround Bangor have mil rates that are 75% or less of Bangor’s rate. So what does my 25% surcharge get? Better roads? Better schools? Lower crime? Nope. Not one of them. For my 25% surchare I get the same schools, terrble roads, and the highest crime rate in the region. So thanks for you input but I believe my original statement stands.
Well, I’m no detective but I’m going out on a limb and saying that this was a collaborated string of robberies. You can’t tell me three places get robbed in the span of two hours and that’s pur coincidence.? I hope Rite Aid hires security to pretend to be pharmacy techs and arm them with .45’s. Make and example and put a hole in one of these scum bags that have this so called “sickness.”
You cannot just pull out a gun and shot someone because they walk up to you and demand drugs. The real world does not work that way.
Well, it should!
It’s not that easy. If you get lead flying around these Pharmacies some of the customers could be killed. It’s called collateral damage.
Whos to decide what way the real world works? Think about this for a minute, you could be called a hero for saving the day in one of these robberies by taking a stand and making an example with one of these losers. Why not? Judges go ahead and grant murders early release after 20-30 years because of “good behavior,” and your saying that shooting someone trying to rob a pharmacy by threatning the life of another humanbeing isn’t how the real world works? I’m not going to assume anything here but If these Pharmacists and pharmacy techs start to feel threatned and scared to go to work, I would take desperate measures. If a judge is going to have symphathy to a murder after x amount of years of good behavior, I’m sure he/she would let something like an injured or dead junkie set and example. Please tell me someone would cry wolf over that one….
What’s in it for a young Pharmacist with a new baby at home to pull out a gun?
It certainly should!
My world does.
You can call on the police to help you.
I’ll call S&W.
At the end of the day we’ll compare successes.
If they threaten your life then you can blow the scums head off. End of problem.
Would have been nice to not reveal the use of the GPS device!
This is not the first time they have been used or reported in the news. They are nothing new.
I thought the same thing!
Yes, I thought it was rather stupid to let that be known. It’s safer than arming the employees – but I’d do that anyway.
My intial thought was also how stupid it was to let everyone know they can slip a GPS gizmo in with the pills. But then I thought, not too many drugged out losers read the paper anyway, so no big deal.
As I stated below they are nothing new but as you stated they are drugged out losers that just don’t care. Banks have been using exploding dye packs for many years but people still rob banks. Having this sort of information in the public is not going to stop the idiots.
Smart to reveal the use of GPS. May serve as a deterrent…
I think more likely it will make the robber watch the staff more carefully to make sure they don’tput a GPS in the bag.
The assistant district attorney said, apparently in open court, that one was used. Why in the world would the paper not report this fact?
no one should have announced it.
Everything announced in court is reported?
Everything announced in court is part of the public record. If the assistant district attorney didn’t want the public to know, she would have kept quiet.
You have said nothing I did not already know. Is everything announced in court reported? Maybe I’ll ask the mayor of Bangor. Do you know his name?
The guy is just lucky that the aerial drones equipped with the Hellfire missiles haven’t arrived at BIA yet.
Don’t worry, they will be here soon enough. Drones have already been used in local criminal cases (Wyoming). Our police forces across the US have been militarized to the max since 9/11. Anybody that thinks their piddly guns and thousands of rounds of ammo can take on the police and US military and all its toys (such as hellfire missles and drones) are deluding themselves.
FYI, the police made it well known to the public over the radio airwaves (scanner) that they were using a tracking device. So therefore the BDN did not reveal anything that was not secret in the first place.
They make the devices so small they can fit inside a pill capsule so that a thief would have to open all the capsules to find it.
Thank you for looking into the policies Ms. Ricker.
” The misdemeanor charges are refusing to submit to arrest, operating
under the influence of alcohol, refusing to stop for a police officer,
possession of scheduled drugs, and an outstanding warrant, Bangor police
Sgt. Paul Edwards said in a statement late Sunday. ”
Misdemeanor charges?????
They forgot: “Impersonating a Ted Nugent band member” ( a most serious offense)
Yes, that is what the statutes call for. Do you know of some felony laws that the rest of us don’t?
Goodbye, Mr. Macy, and good riddance.
Lock him up and throw away the key.
this is something lepage should really concentrate on is the drug problem in this state. dot blame mainecare for it though
What can this (or any) Governor do to fix this problem?
It’s all Lepage’s fault, dontchaknow.
Put some National Guard members in front of the door to every drug store in Maine. He can do that and it would stop this craziness. Nothing else will.
Jack Bauer move?
What is the perp doing in the picture with the suit? Why is there no caption?
Because it’s a video.
Oh. Thanks.
“Rite Aid has spent millions and millions in technology and safty measures,” she said. Looks like they got robbed there too.
Hows that war on drugs working out for everyone? All these comments and I have yet to see a single one asking about the true sources of these problems. We can keep slapping band-aids; but it should be really clear to all of us by now that there are some very serious societal issues at the heart of these problems. As long as we continue to live our lives the way we currently are (as a society, species) then we will continue to see exponential increases in those using substances to escape, cope, numb, etc. By it’s very design even our healthcare system has become nothing more than another way for some people to capitalize on us and make money. There are so many people on such high horses when it comes to illegal drugs, but let’s be honest with ourselves: nearly everyone these days is filling that void with something… we take more prescription drugs here than anywhere else, we have more incredibly obese people addicted to food; we have far too many people trying to fill that void with religion (a MUCH scarier drug than any street drug); we have a government who are literally the biggest heroin dealers in the world….(I personally spent many an hour guarding poppy fields in Afghanistan- by direct order of my superior officers/ our government.) Seems to me there is an awful lot that we should really be focusing on… I know most people in this state have lived extremely sheltered lives- many who have never even traveled outside of Maine, much less the country; but as soon as one does start to travel abroad it becomes painfully clear just how ignorant and brainwashed most Americans really are. It’s high time we wake up! ….and until we do we will continue to see many of the problems we are currently facing only continue to worsen.
Thank you for your post. I agree with all you have said. And thank you for your service.
I think this happens frequently enough that they can do away with the hand-written sign in favor of one of those flip signs. Instead of “Open-Closed” they can do “Open-Sorry, We’ve just been robbed”.
Would it be possible to set pharmacys up like bank drive throughs? Safety glass and flip open drawer to complete transactions? I know it would cost the company a lot at first to impliment, but the savings to the public in the cost of keeping someone incarcerated for 30-50 years I would think would far outweigh it. The problem is(other than criminal thinking and behavior) that when someone’s an addict, and they need a fix, they become desperate, and the pharmacys seem like an easy target, especially with all these stories in the news about pills being handed out without even weapons being shown.
A lot of pharmacies already have drive thrus. In fact, a man even attempted to rob a Bangor Rite Aid THROUGH the drive thru not to long ago!
People should be responsible & accountable for their actions. Period.
Maybe these kids will think twice before they try this again. But, as one person said on this thread, they probably don’t read the news…because they can’t read.