MASPETH, QUEENS (PIX11) -- Grand Avenue Pharmacy in Maspeth was the first business to report its prescription medicine was stolen this past July 27, after two people in dark clothing smashed the front glass door at 5 a.m.
"Security's been basically improved," the pharmacist told us Friday, as he counted pills on a table, "but I'd rather opt out of this if you don't mind," as he walked away from the camera.
Since July, at least 20 pharmacies in three boroughs have been burglarized in much the same way: "Two unidentified individuals dressed in dark-colored clothing" have been targeting businesses in Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, usually breaking the glass doors, and making off with opioids like Percocet, Oxycodone, and Hydrocodone, or methamphetamine, which is a stimulant.
Gigi Tadono, a pharmacist on Staten Island, told PIX11 News' Anthony DiLorenzo that Drug Enforcement Administration agents visited her after her store was hit.
"It's a ring," Tadono said about the burglars, "so they have multiple people involved. Multi-state."
In early October, three pharmacies in Queens were broken into in a half-hour period, starting with one in Little Neck at 2:58 a.m., then Fresh Meadows at 3:15 a.m., and finally, Ridgewood at 3:40 a.m.
Three pharmacies in Brooklyn were also burglarized in Oct., one in Park Slope, another in Fort Hamilton, and one in Bensonhurst. Most of the stores are independent businesses and not affiliated with any chain.
All the burglaries took place in the dead of night, with the suspects getting away in various high-end cars like BMWs and Mercedes.
"People are hungry for money," said Howard Auerbach, a pharmacy customer from Ridgewood who said his store was hit by burglars. "I think they don't want to be caught, so that's why they do burglaries instead of robberies."
A dozen years ago, after a state crackdown on painkillers made it more difficult to get these prescriptions, several deadly robberies were committed by desperate addicts.
On Father's Day 2011, U.S. Army vet David Laffer shot four people dead in a Medford, Long Island pharmacy, as he stuffed 11,000 painkillers into his backpack. Laffer killed the pharmacist, the store's teen assistant, and two customers.
Laffer's wife, Melinda Brady, was also addicted to painkillers and drove the getaway car.
Months later, on New Year's weekend leading into 2012, off-duty federal agent John Capano was shot during a pharmacy robbery in Seaford, with the suspect demanding opioids. Capano was in the store to pick up cancer medicine for his ailing father.
The NYPD put out the media release about the pharmacy burglaries Thursday morning. The DEA gets notified every time a crime like this is committed involving prescription drugs.
In the most recent burglary, two men in dark clothing smashed into the Xpress Care Pharmacy on Forest Avenue in Staten Island. They even tried to break open the cash register.
It turned out the alarm was so loud that it scared the suspects away in 90 seconds. But in most instances, they got the goods.
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