I suppose this is how the story would have gone if Hansel and Gretel were Drug trafficking morons. They were smart enough to plan their daring robbery in advance, but then…oh then.
The men and another accomplice robbed a CVS in Clearwater about 5 a.m. on New Year’s Day, waving guns at employees and binding several of them with zip ties, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
The trio made off with more than 10,000 pills containing the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The drugs had a street value of about $320,000.But they left behind some obvious clues. First, the surveillance video captured the men and a white Chrysler 200 fleeing the scene. And apparently the men emptied pills from bottles, which they tossed out the window as they drove home, the newspaper reported.
Detectives followed the trail of pill bottles to a home where they found two of the men, sheriff’s officials said.
Investigators said the three men had planned the robbery, even staking the location out the day before, the Times reported. Detectives saw one of the men casing the store in the surveillance video they reviewed, officials said.
And speaking of videos, this story also serves as a reminder of why we don’t film ourselves handling the evidence if we don’t plan on going directly to jail.
As they investigated, they found more evidence. On Dobbins’ cellphone, they saw video of the men in the same room as a bed piled with pills and clear plastic bags, the Times reported. There were also videos showing them handling a white garbage bag, which is the same type as seen in the surveillance video.
The videos also helped investigators identify Roy Lampkin, 18, as an accomplice, showing him handling the white bag. Detectives also found his fingerprints on evidence at the scene.
