MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Sheriff's officials are investigating a pharmacy break-in reported last week that resulted in the theft of prescription drugs.

Middletown Pharmacy, located at 21373 Highway 175, was broken into sometime between the evening of Aug. 21 and the morning of Aug. 23, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Bauman said a sheriff's deputy responded to the pharmacy shortly before 9 a.m. Aug. 23, when the owner of the neighboring business, T&J Automotive, called to report the phone lines to the business had been cut and the front door to the pharmacy appeared to be open.

The last time the pharmacy had been open was 5 p.m. Aug. 21, Bauman said.

He said all phone and cable lines to the pharmacy had been cut at the junction box, presumably rendering the alarm system useless.

The suspects had pried open the pharmacy's front door and inside had kicked in the inner door separating the customer area from the location where the medications were kept, Bauman said.

Bauman said that in the pharmacy's secure area, drawers and cabinets were found opened and a locked cabinet securing all the controlled substances had been pried open.

He said an unknown amount of controlled substances, other medications and a money bag were taken from the secure area. Among the medications taken were unknown amounts of Oxycodone, Norco, Vicodin, Percocet and other substances.

The case is pending further investigation, said Bauman.

The pharmacy had previously been hit by an attempted armed robbery in August of 2006, when Middletown resident Roy Johns came in demanding Oxycontin and pulled a handgun on a store employee before staff was able to close themselves in a back room. He later was captured, tried and sentenced to 12 years in prison, as Lake County News has reported.

Ralph Larssen, pharmacist and owner of Middletown Pharmacy, said it's difficult to say if the recent incident was random or not. However, he suspected it was “somebody familiar with our setup here.”

He added, “They did a lot of damage to the building so it had to be repaired before we could do much,” with it taking them until middle of the afternoon on Aug. 23 to get ready to reopen for business.

Larssen said it also took a few days to get their stock restored.

He said the federal government has established more stringent laws for the prescription drug industry, with the Drug Enforcement Administration trying to make it harder for people to get the kinds of controlled substances stolen from his pharmacy.

“In a way that kind of drives them to this type of activity because they're less likely to get the prescriptions that they were getting,” he said.

Larssen said it seems like there is an ongoing trend of hitting pharmacies.

In late February, a man armed with a kitchen knife demanded OxyContin at Kelseyville Pharmacy before allegedly escaping with several bottles of the prescription painkiller, as Lake County News has reported.

Also earlier this year the national media reported on a theft of $75 million in prescription drugs from an Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse in Connecticut, with pharmaceutical thefts reportedly on the rise around the country over the last decade. A Newsweek article said the drugs often are shipped to black markets in the United States and abroad.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the nonmedical use or abuse of prescription drugs is the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States. Prescription drugs also are said to be the second most commonly abused category of drugs, behind marijuana and ahead of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs.

Larssen said he's taken what measures he can to prevent thefts, including having less stock on hand. He said his regular customers know they usually have to wait a day or two to get some prescriptions.

With times being hard, Larssen said the stolen drugs are likely being used as an income source by somebody.

“It just goes with the territory,” Larssen said. “It's something we have to deal with.”

He added, “It's good that people are aware of what's happening so they can be a little more watchful.”

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