If you like to use the drive-thru pharmacy window, your options are limited in the greater Humble area. In the last week and a half, three Walgreens have been robbed and remain shut down. Each time the thieves targeted powerful prescription painkillers.
Some Humble area drive-thru pharmacy customers are now having to walk in. Crime scene tape and orange cones continue to cordon off the drive-thru windows. Thieves, after hydrocodone and oxycontin, have hit three Walgreens pharmacies since March 30.
"It's locally done, it's not someone coming in. It's around this neighborhood," said Humble resident Melvin Barnes.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating the overnight robberies, all within miles of each other in the Humble area. In each case, thieves broke out the drive-thru window, crawl inside and load up on hydrocodone and oxycontin. However, investigators are tracking a lead.
About 2:30am on April 5, a man was seen breaking into this Walgreens in the 3700 block of Atascocita Road. A second person waited outside the window as the other handed the prescription drugs. They were gone though when deputies arrived. Residents worry the stolen drugs are headed to the black market.
And for parents, the biggest fear is that they'll end up at area schools.
"It's going to happen, you know. We have Nimitz right here, another school right down there and that's what's going on. They thrive off young people," Barnes said.
All three drive-thru Walgreens windows remain closed as investigators pursue leads, but they also tell us drug store thefts are starting to trend up in Harris County.
We brought you this story through our partnership with Houston Community Newspapers. You can read more about it in The Humble Observer.
