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Suspect in pharmacy holdups turns self in

He stole painkillers and told Tarpon police he couldn't hide after his image is broadcast.

By JOSE CARDENAS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS - A long-time addiction to prescription pain killers drove Andrew F. Iverson to rob a pharmacy last week.

That's how the 30-year-old Clearwater man explained his actions to Tarpon Springs police when he turned himself in late Thursday, officials, said.

Iverson told Tarpon Springs police he was responsible for the armed robbery of a CVS pharmacy on Sept. 21, police said.

Several hours later, Pinellas County sheriff's officials accused Iverson of robbing a Walgreens in Palm Harbor four days earlier.

The night of Sept. 17, according to the Sheriff's Office, Iverson went to the Walgreens at 35553 U.S. 19 N in Palm Harbor.

Iverson showed the butt of a handgun in his waistband and demanded Oxycotin from a pharmacist, according to the Sheriff's Office. He got away with 450 oxycodone hydrochloride pills, deputies said. He he drove away in a silver car.

Then, close to midnight on Sept. 21, Iverson went into the CVS at 1000 E Tarpon Ave. and headed straight to the pharmacy.

He lifted his shirt again, according to an arrest affidavit. He showed the pharmacist the handle of a toy gun.

Iverson asked the pharmacist for drugs, Templeton said. He had his own bag. The pharmacist gave him 1,005 pills of oxycodone, all there was in a safe.

Iverson left on foot, Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Barbara Templeton said. But a police dog traced his scent across the street to a cemetery, which probably meant Iverson parked a car there.

Tarpon Springs detectives eventually released security images from that robbery, which Templeton said were played in the news this week.

She said Iverson drove to the Tarpon Springs station because he felt he couldn't hide.

"He felt because his image had been broadcast in the media his identity was not in question anymore," Templeton said.

Iverson, who lives at the Skylit efficiency motel on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail early Friday on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and one count of theft as the result of an outstanding arrest warrant from Burlington County, N.J. He was being held without bail.

[Last modified September 28, 2007, 21:43:23]