Police investigate armed robbery at Indianapolis nursing home
http://fox59.com/2015/03/17/police-investigate-armed-robbery-at-nursing-home/
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (March 17, 2015) – Indianapolis Metropolitan Police are on the search for the armed suspect who robbed an assisted living center on the southeast side of Indianapolis over the weekend. Around 4:15 Sunday morning, employees at the Golden Living Center, located in the 2800 block of Churchman Avenue, called to report the robbery. A female employee told police she saw a man she didn’t recognize standing in a hallway inside the building.
The man was wearing sunglasses and a hood tied tightly around his face. When she told the man visiting hours were over, he continued walking down the hallway.
That’s when she saw he was armed with a long rifle.
Employees told police the suspect grabbed a male employee by his clothing and dragged him down the hallway to a nurses station. He then pointed the rifle at another female employee and ordered her to open two medication carts. The suspect grabbed various prescription drugs and put them into a white bag. He ordered the employees to give him their cell phones and patted the male employee down, apparently looking for his phone. The suspect did not get any cell phones from any employees.
The employees said the suspect ran outside through a side door, which he had already propped open, and got away.
“It’s not something that anyone would expect to happen, and it shouldn’t happen” said facility director Todd Mann. “And we’re cooperating with the police fully, to the best of our ability to make sure these folks are brought to justice.”
Mann said he doesn’t know how the suspect got into the assisted living center. He said every door to the building is locked with a key code, and the codes are periodically changed. He also said the employees who encountered the suspect said they did not recognize the man.
Mann said he has no information to suggest the suspect could have been a current or former employee, or anyone with inside knowledge about the building.
“At this point, we’re relying on the police to investigate this and kind of get back to us on it,” Mann said. “And we’re doing our best to cooperate with those folks.”
An Indiana State Police Trooper was standing guard at the facility Tuesday morning. Just one of several extra security steps taken in response to the robbery, Mann said.
“The safety of residents is the most important thing,” Mann said.
Man also said Golden Living Center has backup prescriptions so no residents went without scheduled doses as a result of the robbery.
While pharmacy robberies have become common in the Indianapolis area, Steve Dubois, of central Indiana Crime Stoppers, said an armed robbery at a nursing home is rare. He said it’s another indication of the lengths some people will go to get their hands on prescription narcotics.
“There are certain people who will do certain things to get what they want, and they don’t care who they hurt in the process,” Dubois said. “And this is a perfect example of that. And these people need to be brought in front of a judge.”
IMPD are taking tips about the robbery. Anyone with information can all them, or Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS.
Filed under: General Problems
I bet it ends up being that an employee was involved in this. But things like this only fuel the DEA’s fire to make it harder for legitimate patients to get the medications they need. When will they open their eyes? Or do they have job openings for people who can think??? Making people in pain just suffer isn’t going to stop criminals from stealing drugs to sell anymore than taking away guns would mean that criminals didn’t have guns. Common sense has went down the toilet!
“There are certain people who will do certain things to get what they want, and they don’t care who they hurt in the process,” Dubois said. “And this is a perfect example of that. And these people need to be brought in front of a judge.”
Is he talking about politicians? Corporations? Bankers? The DEA?
Tell me, what does our criminal injustice system know about drug addiction? Is a judge the same as a doctor now?
Has to be an inside job such as a current or friend of an employee…the narcotics are only stored in a certain part of the med cart and only a very limited number of staff have the key to that lock box (I used to do LTC consulting). One of our facilities years ago with the company I used to work for was also strong armed robbed for the drugs during the overnight shift…it was a former employee. Most LTC pharmacies do not send out large amounts of narcotics to facilities mainly due to keep diversion losses from staff down, I doubt he got very much, but scary still the same for this staff.