Pharmacy locked down following violent break-in
Addicts looking for opioids robbing city drugstores, others in county
Panic button, locked doors and shatterproof glass.
Peter Adamo never thought he’d feel the need to fortify his pharmacy, but after his wife got pushed around by thieves looking for opioids, he saw no other option. The doors are now locked 24 hours a day at Lifestyle Pharmacy.
“They went for the narcotics,” said Adamo. “You know with this string of robberies going on in Windsor with the pharmacies, they’re going after the drugs . ... They were in and out in less than a minute.”
It’s become an increasingly common story for pharmacists across Windsor and Essex County who worry how long it will be before the next time a desperate drug addict crashes through their doors looking for narcotics.
By mid-December, there had been 18 robberies at Windsor pharmacies in 2017. Windsor police Const. Andrew Drouillard said there were 15 pharmacy robberies last year and 18 in 2015.
There were also many pharmacy robberies in the communities surrounding Windsor in 2017. Essex County OPP didn’t respond to requests for information about the exact number.
Drouillard said the pharmacy holdups, and many other kinds of crimes, are symptoms of an opioid crisis that has swept across much of Canada in the last couple years. According to a Windsor police report on crime statistics, there was a break-and-enter or an attempt about every six hours in 2016.
There was a theft under $5,000 every three hours and a theft from a motor vehicle about every five hours. Windsor police arrested someone for possession of stolen goods about once a day. There was a robbery or robbery attempt about every two days.
“It’s definitely a crime that’s driven in the most part by addiction to these drugs and people trying to feed that habit,” said Drouillard.
Police have been working with the Essex County Pharmacists Association and individual pharmacies to help stem the tide of robberies. Drouillard said that has included environmental design surveys of pharmacies.
There is also a self-audit checklist on the Windsor police website that pharmacists can use to learn how they can make things safer. The survey has dozens of questions about a wide range of topics, including building design, sign positioning, surveillance technology and sight lines.
Adamo, whose pharmacy was also broken into a few years ago, decided the safest thing he could do was lock the doors 24/7 and control with external cameras and remote buzzers who can enter.
He came to that conclusion after two men arrived at his pharmacy in a stolen car on Oct. 25. They burst into the store wearing gloves and masks, waving around some kind of spray can.
Adamo said his wife, Marilyn, hit a recently installed panic button. Other than scaring them off, it wasn’t much help.
“It pisses me off,” said Adamo. “These guys came in, they did kind of shove her a little bit when they were demanding to know where the drugs were.”
“As soon as they walked in, Marilyn hit the panic button so the police were alerted. But they were in and out so quick that by the time the cops showed up, they were gone. We were checking the video later, and one of them stopped in front of the security display panel and probably saw that it said ‘panic.’ That’s when they were rushing to get out of here.”
They escaped with a stash of prescription narcotics. After that, Adamo upgraded the security camera system.
“We also got a protective film put on the glass around the doors that kind of makes it shatter proof and very difficult to break through,” said Adamo. “Then we got a buzzer system so the door always stays locked and we have to buzz people in. There’s a camera and doorbell on the outside so the pharmacist can see who’s at the door.”
If some people see the locked doors as an inconvenience, he said, it’s worth it to keep everyone out of harm’s way.
“I’m going to consider the safety of the people who work here and our patients first,” said Adamo. “If somebody has to wait outside for one second, so be it. And it’s not an inconvenience because at the most they have to wait one
They were in and out so quick that by the time the cops showed up, they were gone.
second to open the door. We always see who’s at the door. I can see people coming and I have the button pressed so they don’t even know it’s locked.”
But, he added, it’s unfortunate that such an extreme measure is necessary in the first place.
“We’re not used to this kind of thing in Windsor,” said Adamo. “You hear about this kind of thing a lot in the States, but not here in Windsor. It’s a shame that it’s got to this point.”