Category:
Crime
Region:
USA
State:
Florida
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PHARMACY TARGET OF EARLY-MORNING ROBBERY
Date: 15-Oct-2007
Two men wearing masks stormed a CVS Pharmacy at 2036 E. Atlantic Blvd. in Pompano Beach Monday morning about 6:30 am.
Broward Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at the pharmacy after a 911 call came in from someone inside reporting a robbery.
The two men were armed and forced customers to the floor and then took their cell phones. The men also vandalized the pharmacy area.
Broward Sheriff Public Information Officer Elliot Cohen said the two men got away despite efforts by BSO to block off the area. Deputies had closed the intersection of Federal Highway at Atlantic Boulevard to traffic for nearly two hours while they searched for the armed men, but the search has since been called off.
Robbery detectives will be reviewing surveillance tape to see if the robbery is connected to other pharmacy holdups in the past few weeks. North Broward pharmacies have been on alert after a rash of early-morning robberies by two armed men wearing Halloween masks.
Just last week, two CVS pharmacies and a Walgreens in North Broward county were robbed within 90 minutes of each other. Investigators believe the same robbers hit all three stores. Detectives aren't sure if the incident in Pompano Beach Monday morning is connected, even though surveillance video shows the robbers wearing what appears to be the exact same hats.
"There's only so much theme you can have when it comes to robbing a drug store. I mean people are going to wear masks, people are going to have guns, or some sort of weapon and they're going to make off with cash," said Cohen.
A check of local records show there have been 16 robberies at CVS and Walgreens stores in North Broward and Southern Palm Beach counties since May. In most cases, the robbers struck in the early morning hours, they were wearing ski masks or Halloween masks, and they took the victim's cell phones.
So far there have been no injuries in the heists, but the victims and their families hope the crooks find another way to make a living before somebody does get hurt.
"This world is big. We all have to live in it. We all have to get along. If you can't work, stay home. You can't be robbing people," said James Grube, whose wife was working when the robbers ransacked the CVS Monday.
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