Pharmacy owner won't let destruction from robbery stop business

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -

Thieves smashed their way into a business that an entire neighborhood counts on, but the owner of a Kansas City pharmacy is determined to keep helping his customers.

Workers had to board up a hole in the wall of Spalitto's Pharmacy, located at Independence and Cleveland Avenue, after the destruction, but that won't stop its owner. He is the third generation of his family in the business and they're not about to let the damage stop him from serving his customers now.

Spend any time with Pete Spalitto and people will quickly see it takes more than a hole in the wall to slow him down.

"We're actually doing business," he said. "We're back to normal, everything's running fine. We've just got a lot of damage we've got to repair."

Damage caught on surveillance video about 2:45 a.m. Thursday shows a white minivan backing into the business' side door twice before it bursts through the wall, sending prescription drugs flying.

"Some of them bottles are $400 and $500 a bottle," Spalitto said.

Add to that $60,000 to $80,000 to repair the wall and Spalitto's looking at a $100,000 loss. It's a huge sum compared to the cost of what the thieves actually stole 20 bottles of prescription-strength codeine cough syrup, according to police.

"When they came in to get it, they knew exactly where we put it, and were out in less than a minute, before police could even get on the scene," Spalitto said.

But after 84 years and more than three generations in business, the Spalittos know this is not the worst that can happen. His grandfather was killed in a robbery at one of the pharmacy's old locations.

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Pharmacy owner won't let destruction from robbery stop business