Pharmacy Identifies Pill Thief

Shortly before 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 22, the San Diego Police Department received a report of a robbery from the Sixth Avenue Pharmacy, located at 2121 Fifth Avenue, downtown.

By 3:15, half a dozen police cruisers had converged on an apartment building at the intersection of Fourth and Beech Street. Police officers surrounded, then entered the building. Soon after, police brought out — in handcuffs — a tall man who appeared to be in his 20s.

San Diego police Lt. Darryl Hoover stated that employees of the neighborhood pharmacy had reported to the police that a man wearing a bandanna over his face had walked into the store, approached the pharmacy, “simulated a weapon,” and demanded Oxycontin.

Despite his disguise, pharmacy employees recognized the suspect as one of their regular customers and handed him some prescription drugs before he fled on foot. They gave the police a description of the suspect as well as his name and address from their records.

After the suspect was detained, two “curbside lineups” were conducted in which witnesses to the robbery positively identified the man in handcuffs as the suspect.  He was arrested for robbery and booked into San Diego County Jail.