Creative Detective Work IDs Man who Robbed CVS Pharmacy

Feb. 22, 2005
Trail created from robbery to broken liquor bottle to scanned ID to surveillance camera

A smashed 40-ounce bottle of Hurricane malt liquor and a listing of computerized beer purchases helped police capture a robbery suspect in Pittston, Penn.

After a weeklong investigation, police arrested Brian Thomas Morgan on charges of robbing the CVS Pharmacy on Kennedy Boulevard Feb. 9.

Police said Morgan, 27, of Carroll Street, entered the store wearing a black hat that had the word Police on it and demanded money from the registers.

He told store clerks he was going to blow everyone up if they didnt give him the money, police said. Moments later, Morgan fled the store with a white CVS Pharmacy bag containing $265 cash, police said.

When police arrived, they got a description of the suspect from surveillance cameras and found a broken bottle of beer on the sidewalk near the entrance. Police could not obtain fingerprints from the bottle because it was wet and smashed into pieces.

After further investigation, police were given a similar description of a man who purchased a bottle of Hurricane malt liquor from the Convenient Food Mart on South Main Street.

Police asked if the suspect showed ID to purchase the beer and the clerk told police they scanned his photo ID. All beer purchases in the Convenient Food Marts are logged in a computer system and photo ID information is also recorded.

The person spotted on store video matched the description of the man seen on CVS security cameras, police said.

Police gathered eight photos of Morgan from the surveillance videos, and his ID card, and showed them to the workers at the CVS and the Convenient. Both clerks positively identified Morgan, police said.

Morgan was charged with robbery, terroristic threats, simple assault, theft and theft by extortion. He was arraigned before District Justice Joseph Carmody in West Pittston and taken to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $10,000 bail.