Another pharmacy was robbed Friday night, a day after the alleged "OxyContin Bandit" was arrested in South Jordan.
It was a similar mode of operation, said Salt Lake City police Lt. Craig Gleason. The ShopKo pharmacy at 2290 S. 1300 East, was robbed about 6 p.m. Friday by a man believed to be in his late 20s.
The man got out of a blue van in the parking lot, walked into the store with his head down and made a loop around the pharmacy before approaching the counter where he presented the pharmacist with a note demanding the painkiller OxyContin, Gleason said.
When the pharmacist flashed a disbelieving look toward the thief, the man lifted his shirt, showing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun inside his waistband.
"There is constant activity going on with prescription fraud, but rarely do they go in and physically rob the pharmacy," Gleason said. "It's a pretty poor criminal choice to get $60 worth of drugs and go to jail for five years."
Gleason said it was unclear how much of the drug the robber got away with because he hand-picked only the brand name drugs from the lot the pharmacist handed over.
On a tip from store security, police ended up chasing the wrong vehicle and the robber got away, Gleason said. However, video surveillance provided a "pretty good description" of the man, who was wearing a beanie cap, a brown athletic jersey shirt with the letters "LOS" on the back and a fake beard.
In the past few weeks, there have been at least eight similar OxyContin pharmacy robberies. Thursday night, police arrested a man who they allege had successfully robbed Alta View Hospital's pharmacy of more than 100 pills that day.
Other robberies have been reported primarily by pharmacies in Walgreens stores.
"They typically look for those places that are easy to get in and out of and that have high traffic," Gleason said.
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com