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In Broad Daylight

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In Broad Daylight

Trio targets local pharmacy in brazen burglary early Saturday morning

By
Christine Reid
In Broad Daylight

Kingfisher Police Department is searching for three unidentified suspects who perpetrated a brazen daytime burglary at Heritage Pharmacy in Kingfisher Saturday morning.

Two suspects, their identities almost entirely obscured by masks, hooded sweatshirts and gloves, broke into the pharmacy about 7 a.m. Saturday by cutting through a rear, exterior metal wall and then through the interior wall board.

A third suspect drove the getaway car, a charcoal gray sedan captured on various area security cameras, which may be a Nissan, Police Chief David Catron said.

The security alarm was engaged but was not triggered, apparently because the suspects did not come in through a door and then managed to evade the alarm’s sensors once inside, Catron said.

Security cameras inside the store captured images of the two individuals, one of whom appeared to be a dark-complected male based on patches of visible skin, according to the police report.

The two suspects “army crawled” from the back to the front of the store, staying at floor level while taking medication off the shelves and putting it into a bag one of them pushed along as he crawled, according to surveillance video viewed by police.

At one point, the two suspects pushed a metal safe from the front of the store to the back, where they cut into it before discovering it was empty, Catron said.

Based on timestamps on security footage captured from surrounding buildings, the two suspects were inside the store for about 48 minutes before fleeing back through the hole they created.

They were picked up by the third person in the gray sedan, which was last visible on camera headed north away from the scene, according to the police report.

The burglary was discovered shortly before 9 a.m., when two employees arrived to open the store and then called 911.

Officers Justin Conner and Aaron Schlegal were the first on the scene, according to the police report.

Police are still collecting area surveillance footage and waiting for a complete inventory of medicines stolen from the pharmacy, Catron said.

“We’re sure these suspects have been involved in similar crimes, but so far we haven’t turned up similar break-ins in the state,” he said.