Painkillers and prescription cough syrup have brought burglars to the Glenview Professional Pharmacy four times this year.
Police arrested one set of suspects this summer. They believe that a second set has preyed on the store since September.
Police believe the burglars who hit the store last week also burglarized it Sept. 3. And the same group may have stolen drugs from a Dallas County pharmacy a few weeks ago, they said.
"I just keep adding another layer of security to try and stop them," pharmacy owner Larry Cowan said Monday. "It may come down to me getting a bank vault."
Thieves have taken hydrocodone pills and prescription cough syrup.
"We believe they are selling the drugs," Richland Hills Police Chief Barbara Childress said.
It all started in March when a group of men smashed the front door of the pharmacy, at 7640 Glenview Drive, and stole the cough syrup. Police believe they hit again in May. Suspects were arrested a few weeks later in Grand Prairie.
On Sept. 3, two men pried open a back door at the pharmacy and took dozens of hydrocodone pills. A store surveillance camera recorded them fleeing in a new Dodge pickup with a car booster seat and baby car seat in the bed of the truck.
On Wednesday, the same men are believed to have pried open the back door and made off with about 10,000 hydrocodone pills valued at $3,000. This time they were in an older dark blue Ford Taurus with a bumper missing, police said.
(c) 2005 Associated Press
