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What is it with drug stores and bomb threats?
By adamg on Mon, 11/17/2014 - 2:10pm
UPDATE: Around 5:15 p.m., somebody called in a bomb threat the the CVS at 942 Hyde Park Ave. in Hyde Park - which was the ninth or tenth drug-store bomb threat of the day. About ten minutes later, a bomb threat was phoned into the CVS on Market Street in Brighton.
Somebody is keeping BPD busy this afternoon by calling in bomb threats to drug stores: So far, CVS stores at 333 Washington St., downtown, and 631 Washington St. in Chinatown, the Rite-Aid at 100 Cambridge St. and a drug store in South Boston have been swept by police.
Earlier:
CVS bomb threatener resurfaces, threatens to explode another drug store.
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Comments
Attempted Robbery
What they do is, call in and say there's a bomb that will go off unless the cashier gives them the numbers on the back of all of the pre-paid cards in the store. The drugstores evacuate, BPD rolls in, there was no bomb, and the caller (who is most likely calling through VOIP with a few relays) tries another one.
Similar thought
I was going to suggest something like this with a twist: a employee or custome of one of the stores who wants everyone else out so they can grab the oxy.
I'd bet money on that
Lots of oxy goes missing, and nobody knows how it happened or who did it.
Although I suspect they keep much of it locked up with only one or two people able to restock.
I can't speak for every place
I can't speak for every place, but the pharmacies I know do a pretty good job of keeping dibs on those pills. If only because they don't want some pharmacist or some tech who's high on Oxy giving someone the wrong drug.
Criminals are stupid
So, you're going to commit a crime that could get you locked up for a long, long time...for gift cards. And you're going to STAY ON THE LINE while the cashier reads them all to you.
I wonder the odds of someone who is smart enough to create and plant a bomb that they could reliably remotely detonate, also being stupid enough to do this. Maybe the cashier could test this by saying, "There are more cards in the back, can you give me a number and I'll call you back?"
No value until activated
All the cards (gift, VISA, phone, etc) have no value until activated by a cashier via the POS checkout process. Reading the numbers on them would do nothing because the cards wouldn't be activated.
Presumably the caller asks
Presumably the caller asks the cashier to activate the cards though.
Serials
but all cards have serials and those serials need to be activated via the register, so there's a record of each activation. This is what I've never understood about credit card fraud.. criminals just get gift cards. These can be tracked and shut off instantly.. not sure why this has yet to be done.
I'm familiar with credit card processing but not gift card. Maybe someone can enlighten me on why this is.
Easy to catch them
A 23-year-old Ranolph woman working at buybuy BABY on Granite Street in Braintree was caught allegedly stealing more than $1,100 worth of gift cards from customers.
Braintree police arrested Lacey N. Whynot and charged her with larceny over $250 by single scheme on July 21 after loss prevention reported that she allegedly activated gift cards for customers with the right amounts but then gave them blank cards, Deputy Chief Russell Jenkins said in a statement.
Loss prevention told police that it was done to 13 customers at a value of about $1,140. The store is now seeking to find the customers and provide them the value they purchased, Jenkins said.
http://patch.com/massachusetts/braintree/cashier-at-buybuy-baby-in-brain...
Bomb threats to drug stores
Awhile back (a few years?) the Osco on River Street in Mattapan stopped accepting phone calls and didn't have any number listed because they were getting bomb threats all the time.
There's still
There's still an Osco around?!?!?
Osco -> Brooks -> Rite Aid
He said "a few years back". If the store is still there today, it's now a Rite Aid.
My church used to get them
My church used to get them all the time. It was way back when there were still pay phones around and the calls were placed down the street. The BFD stopped evacuating the building because that is what the caller wanted to see. Instead, they would throughly inspect the building and bags. After a while the call stopped.