ST. GEORGE – In the fourth pharmacy robbery in recent weeks, Smith’s pharmacy was hit this evening shortly after 6 p.m.
In an ironic series of events, Shannon Amargo, who was eating lunch nearby when the Wells Fargo Bank robbery in Bloomington occurred earlier today, was at Smith’s when this robbery happened.
“It’s following me,” said Amargo. “We were at the pick-up for the pharmacy and the lady tech started telling me to leave, leave now!”
Amargo and her husband, Ivan, had already paid and were waiting for their prescription when the tech told her they had to leave because the pharmacy was being robbed. Ivan Amargo was standing next to the robber, who was wearing a medical mask, a baseball-type shirt white with blue sleeves, when the man took the items from the clerk and ran off.
Shortly after, St. George News reporter Dallas Hyland was on a shopping trip to Smith’s and encountered police officers in search of the robber.
“I went to pick up a movie box – I saw cops and a cop asked me if I’d seen a mid-sized male running in cowboy boots,” said Hyland. He hadn’t, but asked the police officer what happened. He said the officer told him, “he just robbed Smith’s.”
Lt. Giles said the suspect was wearing a Gilligan-style hat, sunglasses, a medical mask and displayed a firearm during the robbery. The suspect is still at large.
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copyright St. George News 2011
Maybe that 275,000 grand the city council spent on the spin wheel could have gone to fund more officers and equipment for our police department. It could have also paid a lot of overtime for officers to heavily patrol every pharmacy until this guy is caught.
They still gave the cops $75,000 for new cars.
I would think with how often and out of the blue these 4 have happen its someone from somewhere else. Check Hotels, Mesquite, Cedar….
I fear this is a trend that is going to continue in our community. Alot, but not all of it, is due to the condition of the current economy. It is a sad commentary that people have to resort to this type of criminal behavior to satisfy their addiction to drugs. It is a matter of time before someone is going to be hurt. It is important that the community continue to support our law enforcement in its endeavors to apprehend these individuals. The police need the members of the community to be their eyes and ears and report suspicious behavior. And to think that summer is not even near to being over….
@ james.
spin wheel? don’t you mean carousel. It doesn’t matter how many police officers are on the force when the dept. is full of barney fife like cops. their investigations department is horrible. the best thing they can do it pull people over for going 3mph over the speed limit or for listening to rap music in your car. just like the bank robbery suspect, this robber will get away and keep robbing pharmacies.
Yeah their investigations dept. is ran by a guy that would still be on patrol in any other agency. They promoted some really young guys with no experience to some very high positions.