State Police in Cumberland County believe an organized prescription drug theft ring is in action in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. A female suspect used false prescriptions three different times between January 27th and February 8th to obtain prescription drugs at a pharmacy located on the 300 block of Baltimore Road in Shippensburg Township.
“Throughout the course of the investigation other police departments have come forward and they have identified similarities in the cases. Because of that they believe this may be part of a bigger drug ring,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Robert Hicks.
“On the final occasion she came in the pharmacist got suspicious. He said he was going to call the doctor, at which point she said, no don’t worry about it, and she took off and she hasn’t returned,” said Trooper Hicks. “The pharmacist then called the doctor and verified that the prescriptions were fraudulent. She had what appeared to be a legitimate prescription pad from the doctor’s office with fraudulent writing on it,” said Trooper Hicks.
The suspect is described as a dark complected woman, about 40 years old, around 5’5 tall, with dark hair and dark eyes, of a thin build. She may have a dark spot under one eye. Anyone with information is asked to contact State Police in Carlisle, 717-249-2121.
Insight
Lynford King is a pharmacist and owner of The Medicine Shoppe, in Spring Garden Township. He usually fills prescriptions for his regular customers, but he has seen people try to pass off fake prescriptions. He is not related to the State Police Investigation but gave FOX43 some insight on red flags he has seen. “People will come in and immediately want a cash price. We’ll ask them if they have insurance, they say yes, we do, but we just want to pay cash. That’s a red flag. Another thing may be, it’s an out-of-state prescription from a clinic maybe in Florida, we’ve had those before. And the patient may not even live in Pennsylvania,” said King. “It’s just unfortunately a habit that some people can’t seem to kick. It’s hard to say what the addictive properties of the medicine are, it’s sometimes a physical and a chemical dependence.”