Incident 40137

A New Carlisle woman was indicted in January 2020 after she allegedly stole prescription drugs from a Springfield pharmacy where she worked as a technician.

The woman, 34, has been indicted in Clark County Common Pleas Court on four counts of trafficking in drugs, four counts of possession of drugs, three counts of deception to obtain a dangerous drug, nine counts of theft of drugs, receiving stolen property, counterfeiting and grand theft.

She was not listed as an inmate in the Clark County Jail as of Wednesday afternoon.

The investigation began on Sept. 6 when the owner of Harding Road Pharmacy, located at 400 W. Harding Rd. in Springfield, called the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy to report “he had a pharmacy technician stealing controlled substances,” according to an affidavit filed in the case.

“(The pharmacy owner) stated he was reviewing his wholesale sales to Madison Avenue Pharmacy and Springfield Pharmacy and found six suspicious sales since August, 1,” the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, the owner called the pharmacy on Madison Avenue and they confirmed they did not make the purchases.

“All of the suspicious sales were cashed out at their Point of Sale (POS) by the same person,  a Certified Pharmacy Technician,” the affidavit said. “(The pharmacy owner) advised he was able to check video evidence and verify that the woman had bagged up and cashed out all six transactions.”

Later that day, the pharmacy owner ran a report of all wholesale sales from Jan. 1, 2018 until Sept. 6, 2019, the affidavit said.

“(The pharmacy owner) advised he identified 39,500 tablets of benzodiazepines e.g. alprazolam, clonazepam as well as tramadol and phentermine in varying manufactures, strengths and doses which had been stolen,” the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, on Sept. 10, another bulk order of phentermine was stolen from the Harding Road Pharmacy.

“The technician placed the order for the bulk order. She bagged it up,” the affidavit said. “Officers followed her home, but she made four stops on the way.”

On Sept. 23, she placed a bulk order of 1,000 count of alprazolam, the affidavit said.

“On Sept. 24, officers witnessed the delivery to the Harding Road Pharmacy. The bulk order, once again, went missing- the bottle had been marked with a UV market,” the affidavit said.

Officers followed the technician as she left the pharmacy that day, where they initiated a traffic stop, the affidavit said. She was then arrested.

“The bulk order was found in the back of the woman’s vehicle in a paper pharmacy bag,” the affidavit said. “Officers had witnessed her take the paper pharmacy bag from the pharmacy. She did not have the authority to take the bulk order from the pharmacy.”