RANGELEY – Police say they do have “people of interest” they are investigating after thousands of pills were stolen from the pharmacy on Friday night.
Police Chief Dennis Leahy said Officer Jared Austin responded to an alarm call at 8:55 p.m. at the IGA Pharmacy at 2185 Main Street. Arriving 4 to 5 minutes after the call came through a Franklin County dispatcher, Austin discovered the front door had been broken and opened. Once inside, the locked area where the pharmacy’s drugs are kept was also broken open.
“We’re still working on the inventory, but it’s close to 6,000 pills that were taken,” Leahy said. All of the pills taken were narcotics. Leahy hasn’t put a so-called “street value” on the pills taken until the inventory is completed.
Both the IGA pharmacy and the IGA grocery store next door closed at 8 p.m. Friday. The pharmacy’s front door was broken into 55 minutes later when the alarm sounded, Leahy said. The entire burglary took less than the 4 or 5 minutes it took Austin to arrive at the store, he added.
Police have identified “people of interest,” but Leahy said he is not ready to call them suspects yet.
The State Police have taken over the burglary investigation, he noted. Investigators are asking that if anyone saw anything suspicious Friday at between 8:45 and 9 p.m. to call the Rangeley Police Department at 864-3579 or the state police at 1-800-452-4664.
