String of drug robberies share common thread

As Costa Mesa police report a third robbery of the painkiller Oxycontin from city drugstores this month, authorities said Monday they may be chasing a man on a spree.

A slim, medium-height man wearing a dark cap walked into the Rite-Aid drugstore at 2300 Harbor Blvd. at 4:45 p.m. Sunday. He handed the pharmacy clerk a threatening note, showed him a handgun tucked into his waistband and received “a substantial amount” of the drug, according to Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Ciszek. The suspect drove off in a black Chevy Suburban with loud exhaust, he said.

Yet two other Oxycontin robberies this month have striking similarities to the most recent one, Ciszek said. All three robberies occurred at Rite-Aid drugstores in Costa Mesa, all three involved a note and in each incident the suspect was a man in dark clothes with a handgun in his waistband.

“The suspect had a very similar description and M.O.,” he said.

The first such robbery in Costa Mesa was at 11:45 a.m., Feb. 2, at the Rite-Aid at 3029 Harbor Blvd., when a clean-shaven white man wearing a black cap and hooded sweatshirt used a note and the threat of a gun to obtain the drug from employees. A similar robbery took place the next day at the Rite-Aid at 211 E. 17th St., according to police.

Newport Beach had an Oxycontin robbery on Dec. 16, though that robber brandished a handgun and made off with the narcotic hydromorphone as well.

The Mariners Pharmacy in the 300 block of Superior Avenue was possibly robbed three years before by the same suspect, Newport Beach police said at the time.

Oxycontin robberies are increasingly common, Ciszek said.

“It’s highly addictive and pretty expensive,” he said. “I hear this is happening nationwide.”