DRUGSTORE HEISTS WAKE-UP CALLS, FADE CHIEF SAYS

GRAYSON - Recent drugstore robberies and burglaries in Northeastern
Kentucky should serve as wake-up calls to area law enforcement agencies,
Grayson Police Chief Greg Wilburn said Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting of the FIVCO Area Drug Enforcement Task Force board
of directors, which he chairs, Wilburn said it was clear to him that
pharmacies were becoming increasingly popular targets for the criminal
element, "more than any other business in town."

That means area police departments need to devote additional patrols to the
drugstores in their towns, treating them in essentially the same manner as
they now do banks, Wilburn said.

Wilburn's department foiled a Sept. 2 robbery at the Grayson Rite Aid
store, located at the intersection of Main Street and Carol Malone Boulevard.

An officer, Sam Lowe, happened to be at the police station, located right
across Main from the drugstore, when an employee ran out and told him the
store was being robbed.

Police arrested Ryan A. Moore, 23, of Ashland, and Thadd M. Ward, 30, of
Flatwoods. Moore was later linked by the Lewis County Sheriff's Department
to an earlier drugstore robbery in Garrison.

Moore fled the Grayson store on foot, taking with him cash and about 6,000
doses of prescription medication, Wilburn said. He was chased down and
tackled by officers in the parking lot of nearby grocery store.

Ward remained in the store and was standing at checkout counter with money
laid out as though he was paying for a purchase when Wilburn entered.

"I asked him what he was doing, and he said he'd been waiting for 20
minutes to check out, but there was no one around," he said.

Wilburn said he didn't buy the ruse and took Ward into custody.

The suspects took the cash from the store because it was "convenient,"
Wilburn said, but it was clear that drugs were what they were mainly after.

One of the suspects methodically went through a list of prescription drugs
with the Rite Aid pharmacist, telling him exactly what he wanted, he said.

The employees of the store were able to escape through a rear exit. That
averted a hostage situation, "which is what we're all afraid of," Wilburn said.

"We got lucky in that no one was injured," he said.

The suspects were armed with pellet guns that looked like semi-automatic
pistols, Wilburn said. An unloaded .380-caliber automatic handgun was also
found in their vehicle.

West Liberty Police Chief James Keeton said one drug store in his city had
been burglarized twice this year.

McMeans Pharmacy in Ashland was burglarized last month. The thief took
numerous medications, but left the most sought-after prescription drug,
OxyContin, behind on the pharmacy shelf.

Wilburn said it was his belief that criminals were targeting pharmacies in
small towns, believing their police departments lack the manpower and
resources to catch them.

He said one of the suspects in the Rite Aid hold-up told him he couldn't
believe he'd been caught by "hillbilly cops."

Wilburn said "in a moment of frustration," he told the suspect he couldn't
believe that "a couple of hillbillies" would try to rob a drug store right
across the street from a police station.