Addicts targeting smaller pharmacies

EAST AURORA, N.Y. (WIVB) - Burglars are targeting pharmacies that may not have top-notch security to stop them. Just this week, police say a burglar went to great lengths to break into a Mom & Pop pharmacy in East Aurora.

The noise from the attempted break-in on the roof of the Larwood Pharmacy, alerted neighbors to call police.

Detective Rick Daminski said, "So they actually cornered him up on the roof, tried to get him down. He did not want to come down, at first. Then he finally jumped."

MORE | This was the second burglary attempt at Larwood Pharmacy in just a week

Thirty-one-year-old Jacob Walker injured his leg in his leap from the roof and was taken into custody. Police say Walker was so desperate to break in, he brought his own burglary tools: a butter knife and a tire iron.

Detective Daminski said Walker was after Lortab, and in his desperation, almost cut through the roof.

"Then he was trying to open it like a can opener with that piece metal, and luckily the neighbors spotted it, heard and called, and we were able to apprehend him," he said.

Walker did not get in the pharmacy and owners say this is the latest in a rash of pharmacy break-ins across western New York, mainly at smaller stores.

Larwood Pharmacy co-owner Becky Almond said, "People are trying to get in for our drugs. It is not the money, it is not the cash registers, it is the drugs."

Co-owner Linda Andrews added, "We've had people stealing prescription pads and writing their own prescriptions. And also just breaking into pharmacies for the drugs."

In South Buffalo, the owner of the Seneca Pharmacy no longer keeps Oxycontin in stock after four armed holdups, one of them with deadly consequences. In that case, police tracked down the robbery suspect, and shot him to death in his home.

Owner Cyrus Ardalan said, "Brings a little delay, for the patient getting the drugs by one day, but it removes us from being a target, because we do not keep the drug in stock."

The Seneca Pharmacy's Oxycontin policy has been in place for a year, and owner Ardalan says they've had no incidents. The attempted break-in at the East Aurora pharmacy was the third one this year.