by Jamie Belnap

STAFF WRITER

A Grantsville High student was arrested and booked into the Tooele County Jail after attempting to break into Williams Family Drug in Grantsville through the roof early Saturday morning.

According to Detective Dan Chamberlain of the Grantsville Police Department, pharmacy owner Scott Williams was still working at 2:30 a.m. when the break-in occurred and he called police.

Alexander Vannoy, 18, was arrested at the scene and charged with burglary, possession of burglary tools and consumption of alcohol by a minor.

This is the third incident involving attempted burglary or burglary at the pharmacy in the two short years since it opened, Chamberlain said. The first resulted in several broken windows and in the second a thief made off with $6,000 (wholesale) in narcotics. The investigation on the second case is still ongoing, according to Officer Jim White of the Grantsville Police Department.

Additionally, in January, Birch Family Pharmacy in Tooele was robbed by a masked gunman for OxyContin, a prescription painkiller, and Soma, a prescription muscle relaxant. Tooele City Police caught up with the suspect, Darin Anderson, later that afternoon and he was booked into the county jail on charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and illegal possession or use of a controlled substance. Anderson pled not guilty on May 6 and a jury trial has been scheduled for September.

"Mom and pop stores that aren't connected to other buildings and don't have 24-hour service are all getting hit," Chamberlain said of the recent spree of prescription drug thefts. "We've even had dentist offices getting hit for drugs."

Lt. Paul Wimmer of the Tooele City Police Department said these types of crimes come in waves.

"We'll go without a robbery for a time and then all of a sudden we'll have three," he said. "Pharmacies have always been targeted. Most pharmacists within their career have been robbed and a vast majority of the time it's for narcotics. They are habit-forming and become a drug problem."

Sheldon Birch, owner of Birch Family Pharmacy, said the upward trend of prescription drug theft is due to the high street values associated with prescription painkillers, and because they are so highly addictive.

"The DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] suggests that 25 to 30 percent of the controlled substances that we dispense are diverted to illegal uses," Birch said. "The market for that type of thing is just monstrous."

Despite having security systems and other methods of keeping crooks out, Birch said pharmacies will probably continue to fall victim to these types of crimes.

"There's only so much that can be done," Birch said. "It used to be that pharmacies were built like vaults, but in the last 15 years or so there has been a movement of opening up pharmacies to develop patient/pharmacist relationships and make them more friendly and personable. But that means that we are more open to burglaries and robberies."

Birch said the openness trend will likely continue because it improves patient care.

"It's unfortunate, however, that it puts us at greater risk for these other problems," Birch said.

jamieb@tooeletranscript.com