String of recent pharmacy robberies leads to search for solutions
Some Waterloo region pharmacists are renewing calls for better protection after numerous pharmacies have been the target of thieves.
Recently, Waterloo regional police charged three Brampton residents in connection to two recent pharmacy robberies in Waterloo region.
According to Waterloo regional police, in both instances, several men entered pharmacies and demanded cash and narcotics from staff.
“They just came in, pointed a gun at me and said open the pharmacy,” pharmacy owner Mairaj Naveed said his business was one of the places targeted this week. “Basically, it's not a robbery. It's an act of terrorism. Everybody was terrorized.”
The Ontario College of Pharmacists will be discussing some preventative measures at their next meeting on Dec. 12. One option is mandatory time-delayed safes. A measure that, if approved, would apply to all community pharmacies.
“If you go in to rob a pharmacy, you will have to wait anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes for that safe to open,” Jen Belcher, the VP of strategic initiatives with the Ontario Pharmacists Association, told CTV Kitchener.
Belcher said they have been effective in other provinces in reducing the rate of pharmacy robberies -- especially when paired with public awareness campaigns.
“In BC and Alberta we saw pharmacy robberies reduce by 95 per cent after the mandatory implementation of these measures,” Belcher said.
The local pharmacist we spoke to said he’s wary of what might happen if robbers are forced to wait and said it could be risky if they don’t trust you and start to panic.
The Ontario College of Pharmacists said action must be taken soon. Adding that over the course of the pandemic the rate of pharmacy robberies as well as the violence associated with those robberies, has been increasing – the association calling it “extraordinarily alarming.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.