pharmacies increasingly targeted by thieves

On February 14 in Épinay-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis), attackers first entered a pharmacy as simple customers. They pretended to be making a phone call, and took the opportunity to slip luxury cosmetics into their bag four times. But a saleswoman spotted them, and alerted the pharmacist, director of the pharmacy. The pharmacist chased the thieves outside. She managed to catch one who pushed her back, says her associate, face hidden, specifying that the pharmacist fell on her vertebra. The victim is still in hospital. She won’t be able to walk again for three months.

Cosmetics sometimes intended for trafficking

The pharmacist’s associate describes this event as one too many in the pharmacy, already a target of regular thefts. There are on average one per day of attacks like this in French pharmacies. This is 17% more than three years ago. According to Cyril Colombani, pharmacist in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (Alpes-Maritimes), it is not only drugs that are targeted, but also more and more expensive, over-the-counter cosmetics, which are sometimes intended for a traffic.