Suspect held in 3 Lynnwood drug store robberies

Published 1:30 am Sunday, March 25, 2018

LYNNWOOD — A robber went to three Lynnwood pharmacies within minutes, demanding cough syrup with codeine, according to police reports filed in court. He claimed he was dying of a cough.

The man, 22, walked into a Bartell’s store that’s a block from his home just before noon Wednesday, to ask for a specific cough medicine, according to the reports.

He claimed to have a prescription for the drug. He pulled out a pinkish paper out of his pocket, and started to unfold it, but stopped when the pharmacist explained several times that they didn’t carry the drug. A sign on the counter specifically said Bartell’s didn’t carry it. The man left.

Employees alerted a manager, but didn’t call police.

A few minutes later, a Rite Aid pharmacy on 33rd Avenue W. reported they’d been robbed by a man in a black hoodie. He’d revealed a note on a pink sheet of paper, saying he had a gun. The man ran south.

As police took the report at the store, there was another robbery at Walgreen’s in the 20700 block of Highway 99. Police arrived to find a man in a hoodie at the pharmacy counter. He surrendered. At the Lynnwood jail, an officer found a note in his sock, on pink paper.

“I HAVE A GUN,” read the note, which was scanned into court records. “If you don’t want to get hurt give me Promethazine/Codein (please). I’m dying of cough.”

No one was injured in the robberies. The man denied actually having a gun. No weapons were found on him.

A detective interviewed the suspect, and the man said he wasn’t allowed to buy the drug because of an overdose when he was a teenager. The detective noted aloud that entire time the man was in custody, he hadn’t coughed. The man said the cough only happened at night.

Officers booked the man into jail for investigation of three counts of second-degree attempted robbery.

Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui ordered him to be held in jail, with bail set at $10,000.

Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.