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Pharmacy Robbery Caught On Camera, Teen Arrested

By Debbie Williams Reporter

Published: Thu, September 04, 2008 - 5:07 pm Last Updated: Thu, September 04, 2008 - 5:37 pm

Short URL: http://wkrg.com/a/17666/

Debbie Williams

A small town pharmacy is held up by a teenager desperate for drugs and it's all caught on tape.
No one saw him come in. "When he said this is a robbery, it got our attention," says Arlene Joiner who was working behind the front desk.
With a black hood over his head and armed with a knife he demanded drugs. "He said, 'I want all your opiates, Benzodiazepines and Oxycontin and start putting em in bags,' he said." Pharmacist Kim Cadenhead was behind the counter. "He told us, 'this is a robbery no body's going to get hurt,' of course he was displaying a knife."
She starts pushing a silent alarm and then does exactly as he says.
Meanwhile, the man police later identified as Justin Hester rounded up employees and a customer and taped their hands behind their back. Joyner was in the middle of a phone call when the robbery started. "So I laid the phone down so it was an open line hoping whoever I was talking to would know we need help, call the police and they did."
Hester herds everyone into a back room when Cadenhead gets to her feet she sees a deputy at the front door. She mouths the words, "help".
The sheriff's department says everyone in the pharmacy did exactly what they were suppose to do. Staying calm and being cooperative allowed them to do their job.
As the surveillance video ends, Hester grabs the drugs and runs out the back door where he is caught and arrested. He remains in the Escambia County jail facing a host of charges including robbery, assault and kidnapping.