MANALAPAN – Two individuals are being sought in connection with the burglary of a drug store in Manalapan and details provided by police appear to match other recent incidents in which pharmacies have been targeted.
Manalapan Police Capt. Thomas Barstow reported that at 3:25 a.m. Dec. 12, two individuals dressed in all black are believed to have broken the front glass door at Express Pharmacy, 356 Route 9 North (the Bagel World shopping center near Gordons Corner Road), and stolen prescriptions that were believed to be narcotics.
Barstow said the suspects fled the area after grabbing the medicine. He said the individuals are believed to be between about 20 and 30 years old, of unknown race. The total value of the items taken from the pharmacy was not immediately known.
Barstow said an employee of one of the neighboring businesses observed the individuals who were involved in the incident.
Anyone with information regarding the Manalapan incident is asked to call police at 732-446-4300. Patrolman Sean McCarthy took the initial report and the incident remains under investigation by Detective Kevin Schmidt.
The burglary at the Express Pharmacy in Manalapan occurred eight days after two men walked into the CVS pharmacy in the Raintree shopping center, Route 537, Freehold Township, between 12:50-1 a.m. Dec. 4 and demanded Oxycodone from the pharmacist on duty.
During the robbery, one suspect brandished a handgun toward the pharmacist and handed the pharmacist a note demanding Oxycodone, according to police. The pharmacist was followed by one suspect to a safe and the suspect was given Oxycodone pills.
Police said the men left the pharmacy after receiving the drugs and fled the area on foot. Freehold Township Detective Sgt. Russell Gelber said it is possible there was a vehicle waiting nearby to transport the suspects out of the area.
Oxycodone is a pain-killing medication. Gelber said it is the type of drug that can be sold on the street.
Gelber said CVS employees described the two male suspects as being Hispanic, between about 20 and 30 years of age, dressed in all black and wearing baseball caps. One man was described as being about 6 feet tall with a goatee, and the other man was described as being about 6-feet, 2-inches tall and clean shaven.
The description of the suspects that was provided to police by CVS employees matched the description of two men who are suspects in three robberies that occurred in Middlesex County in recent months, Gelber said on Dec. 8.
Gelber reported that similar robberies took place at a Walgreens pharmacy in Perth Amboy on Sept. 15, a Walgreens pharmacy in East Brunswick on Oct. 25 and a Halcyon pharmacy in Old Bridge on Oct. 27.
“The basic description of the suspects (in those Middlesex County incidents) was the same” as was provided following the robbery at the CVS in Freehold Township, he said.
On Dec. 19, Barstow, from the Manalapan police force, said, “With regard to the comparison to other cases or additional investigative avenues, I cannot comment at this time.”
In other incidents reported by Manalapan police:
• On Dec. 14 at 4:11 p.m., Patrolman John Lightbody responded to the area of Pension Road and Sanford Street to investigate a report of a motor vehicle crash. The driver of the vehicle, a 50-year-old male resident of Manalapan, was transported to police headquarters, charged with driving while intoxicated, processed and released.
• On Dec. 15 at 4:10 p.m., loss prevention employees at Wegmans, Route 9, reported that a 40-year-old female resident of Parlin had shoplifted items valued at $495. The woman was arrested, transported to police headquarters, charged with shoplifting, processed and released. Patrolman Jeffrey Emslie handled the arrest.