Oxycontin Bandit Strikes Again
SPOKANE — Another Spokane pharmacy has been robbed for the drug Oxycontin, the seventh robbery for the drug this summer.
Spokane Police say just before noon Thursday the Rite Aid Pharmacy at 1443 North Argonne was robbed at gunpoint and police believe the same bandit robbed the same store on August 14th.
Officers responded within a minute of getting the call on Thursday but the robber was nowhere to be found.
“We were here literally 40 seconds after getting the call from dispatch,” Lieutenant Steve Jones with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said. “We’re a little disappointed because we were sure one of us was going to see him running because we were right here.”
In Thursday’s robbery, the man noticed the woman was going the wrong way and the robber corrected her, telling her where the Oxycontin was in the store.
On seven separate occasions this summer a robber has hit area drug stores, usually handing over a note demanding Oxycontin and threatening that he had a gun. Since June drugstores from Hayden to several across Spokane and Spokane Valley have been hit.
Sheriff investigators believe each robbery has been the work of a single suspect likely addicted to Oxycontin and bound to strike again.
“The time frame between robberies make it seem like he’s using what he’s stealing and then when he starts to run out he commits another robbery that kind of thing,” Sergeant Dave Reagan with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said.
Crime Stoppers and Rite Aid are each offering $5,000 rewards for information leading to the robber’s arrest and conviction because they need help catching this suspect who’s keeping just one step ahead of police.
