Police departments are joining forces to investigate more than a half dozen pharmacy robberies from northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
Police said the crooks weren’t after the money.
Surveillance cameras caught a suspect inside a CVS on Hazard Avenue in Enfield around 11 p.m. Sunday night. Police said he held a pharmacist at gunpoint and demanded drugs.
Video shows the suspect behind the counter stuffing thousands of Oxycodone pills into a plastic bag. He escapes through the drive-thru window.
“It’s nerve-wracking someone could come in at any time and you're life’s in danger,” said pharmacy employee Breanna Cimino. “I was looking at everybody, and questioning this person could do something... You never know."
This isn't the first pharmacy hit in Enfield. Another store was robbed in early July, and just a few weeks ago, two men were captured at a Manchester Walgreens, where they allegedly stole $20,000 worth of narcotics.
Stores in East Windsor and Westfield, Mass. also fell prey to the pharmacy thiefs. Detectives said the same pair could be behind responsible for all the incidents, and was most likely selling the stolen drugs on the streets for some quick cash.
“If they think they can keep going it, they're going to keep doing it,” Cimino said.
So far none of the pharmacy workers have been hurt in the holdups, but police said there was no telling what the suspects are capable of doing next, and they might become more violent.
“When it comes to narcotics and people having dependency on their drugs they get desperate,” said Enfield Police Chief Carl Sferrazza.
Investigators hope to find whoever is behind these crimes before violence erupts. Until then, shoppers and workers said they would be on high alert.
Police in the five affected towns said they are working together to identify and locate the suspects and possibly link these crimes.
Photo Credit: Enfield Police Department