KAMLOOPS — The motion sensor cameras start rolling, as a man wearing gloves and a hooded jacket, enters the building.
“They actually took out one window without breaking it and accessed the site, so you can see on video the fella coming in,” says Chris Cameron, owner of Pratt’s Compounding Pharmacy.
WATCH ABOVE: Full story by Reporter Tanya Cronin
Chris Cameron was woken up out of a deep sleep Sunday night, when an alarm at his business, Pratt’s Compounding Pharmacy, was triggered. Cameron was able to access the video surveillance remotely, and see a man lurking inside.
“I jumped out of bed as fast as i could, i’m half asleep so my response time is pretty slow, by the time I got down here, RCMP were on-site, they had a dog team, probably had 8-10 members on-site.”
Fortunately, a quick response by Kamloops RCMP didn’t allow enough time for the culprit to steal anything. But thousands of dollars worth of property damage was done during the break-in, and police are still searching for the suspect.
“We’re just currently looking for any information that someone may have from the public with regards to the individual involved, and at this point police are continuing to look into it,” says Cpl. Cheryl Bush of Kamloops RCMP.
It’s not the first time thieves have hit a local pharmacy in the last month. Just three weeks ago, Kipp-Mallery in downtown Kamloops was the target of an armed robbery. While police say the two aren’t connected, Chris Cameron says it could be the start of a dangerous trend.
“I think it’s a bit of community safety, we make an effort to make sure there’s minimal amounts of cash and accessable medications available but anytime there’s some of these products available you see a rise in overdoses and deaths and we don’t want that in our community,” says Cameron.
The Pratt’s Pharmacy surveillance video has had just over 6500 views on social media since Monday afternoon. It’s hoped someone who knows something will come forward. In the meantime, Cameron is using the act of this criminal as motivation to beef up security at his business.
“There are still things we can improve, so we’ve implemented that, that’s going to be more dollars spent to make sure we’re as safe as we can be.”
WATCH ABOVE: Video posted by Pratt’s Compounding Pharmacy
