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ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - The Walgreens on Central Avenue at Pasadena in St. Petersburg tries to make the presence of security cameras as obvious as possible. However, that did not slow down a thief Monday night, who deliberately "shopped" the pharmacy an hour after it closed.
Security camera video shows him prying up a metal shutter and crawling across the pharmacy's counter, clearly displaying his face and a full head of notably white-blond hair. Out of sight from anyone else in the store, for nearly 20 minutes he picks and chooses from different areas of the pharmacy.
"They were painkillers, things like oxy and hydromorphone and Vicodin," St. Petersburg police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez said. "It was pretty clear that he was going for those types of painkillers, the heavy hitters that he can sell on the street."
The value of the stolen drugs, which fit in two hand baskets the man is seen trotting out of the store with, are valued at more than $100,000. That is retail value; they are probably worth several times that amount on the street.
"Not only do we have this brazen criminal who breaks into a closed pharmacy while the store is still open, but also we have the fact that we have all of these pills out there on the street that we definitely want to put a stop to," Fernandez continued.
Social media posts on both the department's and FOX 13 News Facebook pages comment on the theft, with multiple mentions about the fact that drugs costing so much fit in just two hand baskets. Some comments also name the suspect, at least one of which has been ruled out, according to Fernandez.
Investigators remain hopeful they'll solve this case, in part, because the man's face is so clearly captured.