115th Year, 28th Issue Thursday, February 19, 2004 Sparta, North Carolina

Halsey Drug store case arrests made

After almost a year had elapsed, the chance of cracking the case of a break in and larceny at a local drug store seemed slim. However, that's just what happened when the Sparta Police Department issued warrants against a number of West Virginia residents.

According to a release from Det. Lt. Wayne Crouse, the break in and larceny at the drug store took place on Feb. 17, 2003. Almost $12,000 worth of schedule II and III prescriptions drugs was stolen, along with $2,000 in damage to the store.

Crouse said he and Officer Tim Bartlett of the Sparta Police Department have been working on the year-long investigation in which the information received helped lead to the case being solved.

According to Crouse, the Sparta break-in had a similar method of operation to break ins in other states and other jurisdictions in this state.

"In the past two months, a break in the case lead to a number of suspects names who were invovled in pharmacy break-ins and numerous locations of break-ins," said Crouse. Working in the case with Sparta were Mount Airy police, Blowing Rock police, the Drug Enforcement Agency in Greensboro, Charleston, W.Va. and others.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Back