Pharmacy robberies in Maine double in 2012

PORTLAND, Maine Pharmacy robberies in Maine more than doubled last year over 2011, and police are concerned the robberies are becoming more brazen.

There were 56 pharmacy robberies last year, with drug addicts taking increasingly desperate measures, said Steve McCausland of the Department of Public Safety. In one instance, a man robbed a pharmacy inside a Walmart filled with customers in broad daylight.

"These are desperate acts by desperate people, and from a law enforcement perspective, it's extremely troubling because of potential violence," McCausland said.

The troubling trend that led a national pharmacy chain to post armed security guards and the establishment of a state panel to identify solutions came in a year that otherwise was relatively safe, McCausland said.

Suspects who robbed pharmacies at a rate of more than one per week last year were seeking narcotics for the most part. Common targets were oxycodone, the key ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin, and hydrocodone, the ingredient in painkillers Vicodin and Xanax, a drug used to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

There were no deaths or injuries during the robberies, but police fear that could change as drug addicts, sometimes armed, become increasingly erratic.

In Bangor, a man charged with several pharmacy robberies was nabbed after driving his car onto a golf course; in Augusta, a man demanded prescription drugs at a pharmacy before barricading himself inside a bathroom and claiming he had explosive chemicals; and in Pittsfield, a bandit left empty-handed after a fed-up Pittsfield pharmacist refused to hand over drugs.

Roughly 70 percent of the robberies resulted in arrests, McCausland said.

"If you rob a pharmacy, you're going to get caught and you're going to jail for a long time," he said.

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Pharmacy robberies in Maine double in 2012