An alleged serial robber in Colorado Springs who targeted pharmacies to get narcotics that sell for $1 a milligram on the street was arrested today partly because of a new time-release safe Walgreens installed in 149 stores.
Anthony Craig, 23, was arrested at about 10 a.m. shortly after a robbery at a Walgreens at 7390 Rangewood Dr., according to police. He was wanted in a string of robberies the past five weeks.
Pharmacies have increasingly been targeted because of the soaring value of painkillers including Oxycontin and Oxycodone that sell illegally for anywhere from $10 to $80 a pill, said David Ternus, a Walgreens security expert based in Highlands Ranch.
The drug is called “hillbilly heroin” on the street, Ternus said.
Now when robbers demand the narcotics at any Walgreens Pharmacy in Colorado or Wyoming a pharmacist will tell them they’ll get what they want but the safe takes time to open. How long? Long enough for police to arrive, Ternus said.
“It’s a deterrent,” said Robert Elfinger, Walgreens spokesman from Deerfield, Ill.
A robber will have to weigh whether it’s worth the risk of hanging around until police can get there, Elfinger said.
The Colorado Springs robber waited too long today and was arrested, Ternus said.
In the past year, drug-seeking robbers have hit 33 Walgreens in Colorado – 18 in Colorado Springs alone, he said. The pharmacy chain began installing the new safes across Colorado two months ago.
In other parts of the country, Walgreens began installing the safes in 2009.
In the state of Washington and the cities of Portland, Ore., and Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn., where Walgreens installed the time-release safes, drug-related robberies have dropped 85 percent, Elfinger said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
