Reward offered in pharmacy robbery

January 17, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - The owner of a pharmacy robbed at gunpoint last week said Monday that she is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the two men responsible.

Mary Mundell, who owns Susitna Pharmacy, near Bogard Road, said the business was closed, with no customers inside, at about 7 p.m. Jan. 11, when the robbers struck.

&#8220They had hoods, masks, gloves. It seemed preplanned,” Mundell said. &#8220We'd locked up and shut everything down. Just as we pushed open the door for the techs, they yanked the door and came right in. They had handguns, revolvers, and told us to get down. They wanted us to get the narcotics. We scooped some crap in a box and gave it to them.”

Mundell said the cardboard container she gave the two men was an old garbage box, with no markings on it that she could recall.

One suspect stood between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed between 180 and 200 pounds, according to a Mat-Su Crime Stoppers release. The other suspect was described as slightly shorter, between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing between 160 and 190 pounds. The taller man wore lighter clothing and the shorter man wore dark clothing. Both men were wearing dark ski masks.

The men fled on foot, heading east on Bogard Road, before getting into a dark-colored truck, according to Crime Stoppers.

&#8220The masks covered everything except for their eyes,” Mundell said. &#8220One guy wore a white hooded sweatshirt thing.”

The pharmacy has been targeted before, Mundell said.

Just last month, on Dec. 17 at about 10:15 a.m., a white man wearing a white cloth across his face entered the lobby of the pharmacy and demanded medication, according to Alaska State Troopers. When an employee told the man &#8220no,” he threatened to climb over the counter and get the drugs himself, but left after the employee &#8220convinced him not to take that course of action,” the report stated.

And on Sept. 11, 2002, Mundell faced a man with a .357-caliber handgun who came in and asked specifically for Oxycontin. She believed the weapons in the Jan. 11 robbery were .357 or .44 caliber. &#8220These guys don't have pea shooters when they come in,” she said.

Mundell said the pharmacy has beefed up security.

&#8220We'd like to put grenade launchers in here,” Mundell said Monday.

Anyone with information about either robbery may call Crime Stoppers at 745-3333, tip them by Web mail at www.matsu-crimestoppers.org or call the troopers at 745-2131.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.