Behind the Badge
Five hooded suspects are being sought for breaking into a pharmacy in Garden Grove and stealing prescription drugs early Wednesday, and the burglars may be the same ones that hit four other O.C. pharmacies the same morning, authorities said.
The Garden Grove break-in was discovered just before 4 a.m. April 6 after an anonymous caller notified the GGPD about a smashed window at An Pharmacy, 10963 Westminster Ave, Garden Grove.
Several agencies are working together to see if the same suspects seen on a surveillance video provided by the GGPD also are responsible for pharmacy break-ins in Anaheim, Villa Park, Tustin and Santa Ana.
The first commercial burglary was reported at 12:07 a.m. at Pharmacy Plus, 1012 N. Euclid St., Anaheim.
Then, at 1:45 a.m., Villa Park Pharmacy, 17821 Santiago Blvd., was hit up, followed by Community Pharmacy, 13400 Newport Ave., Tustin, at 2:38 a.m.
The An Pharmacy suspects. Photo courtesy of GGPD
When Garden Grove police arrived at An Pharmacy just after 4 a.m., they found the front window had been smashed and the steel security door lock had been cut off.
The suspects already were in the wind.
A surveillance video of the An Pharmacy burglary shows five hooded suspects enter the business and go to a shelf with prescription cough medicine and load up their duffle bags, according to the GGPD news release.
The suspects fled out the same front door.
A fifth burglary was discovered around 8:20 a.m. at Medzone Pharmacy, 800 N. Tustin Avenue, Santa Ana, after a Garden Grove patrol officer found about 100 prescription bottles belonging to the pharmacy in a residential neighborhood near Euclid Street and Trask Avenue at 7:30 a.m.
The officer found a box and paper bag with about 100 bottles of prescription-type drugs, according to the GGPD news release. Some bottles still were full and some were empty. The evidence was turned over to the Santa Ana Police Crime Lab.
The five hooded suspects possibly were driving a burgundy Cadillac and a white Lexus SUV, according to the GGPD news release.
The Garden Grove Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspects. The caller may remain anonymous by calling Investigator Tessier at 714-741-5872 or calling 855-TIP-OCCS or visiting occrimestoppers.org
