Police look at possible connection between Corbin, Tenn. robberies

When a man walked into Falls Road Pharmacy a few minutes after noon Monday, clerks at the store were confused by his request to fill a small sack with two types of popular prescription painkillers.
But after he fired a single shot into the floor from a small caliber pistol he held in his hand, the request turned into a demand, and the store fell victim of an all-too-common type of armed robbery.
“You hear about people robbing pharmacies in Lexington and Louisville for drugs at least once a week,” said Whitley County Sheriff’s Detective Chuck Davis. He is investigating the case for the Whitley County Major Crimes Task force, a union of local police agencies dedicated to solving large or particularly violent crimes.
“We’ve had some of it in this area, people wanting drugs instead of money, but not a lot,” he added. “I think its really starting to hit us more and more now. It’s becoming more common.”
The man, described as white and about 5-7, was wearing a heavy khaki-colored coat with a hood during the robbery. His face was covered with a type of ski mask called a “gator.” He wore blue jeans, a camouflage cap and either black or dark brown hunting boots or combat boots. In surveillance video from the robbery, he can be seen pulling out the gun before asking the clerk for the drugs. Davis said when he asked for the drugs, Oxycontin and Lorcet, a second time, he yelled and fired a round into the ground. Police think the weapon was a .38 caliber handgun. The bullet penetrated a rug, carpet and bounced off the concrete below, then ricocheted into a nearby pill bottle. Nobody was injured during the incident.
There were about six employees inside the pharmacy at the time of the robbery. No patrons were in the store.
“Everybody said that they thought he was just dressed that way because it was cold,” Davis said. “They didn’t realize what he planned to do.”
A pharmacist filled the man’s bag with pills, and he quickly left the building. Witnesses say he left the parking lot in either a light or dark gray newer model Jeep Cherokee and turned right on Cumberland Falls Hwy. heading toward Williamsburg. Witnesses say a partial Kentucky license plate number of 560 could be seen on the car.
Davis said officers scrambled shortly after the robbery was reported to locate the vehicle, but had little luck. He’s hoping to narrow down possible owners of the vehicle through localized searches of license records.
“Hopefully, we can come up with something,” he said. “Right now, it looks pretty difficult.”
Davis said no one in the store recognized the man’s voice.
Authorities say the robbery could be linked to a similar incident in Greenville, TN just hours earlier. The town is about 60 miles south of Knoxville on I-75.
“It’s got the same MO,” Davis said. “I’m taking a look at that to see if there’s maybe a connection.”
The robbery was the first such crime at Falls Road Pharmacy. Davis said the store was the site of a burglary fairly recently and has been hit, like many local pharmacies, with attempts by customers to obtain medication with forged prescriptions.
Anyone with information regarding the robbery is encouraged to call Davis at 549-6006 or 549-8117.