Cops: Bandit hit same drug store 3 times

Posted: Tuesday, December 17, 2013

A Middletown man accused of four gunpoint robberies in Falls and Lower Makefield faces new charges that he robbed the same Bristol pharmacy at gunpoint three times, getting away with more than $14,000 worth of prescription painkillers.

Bristol police developed 36-year-old Rowland “Woody” Woodward IV as a suspect after he was arrested Oct. 30 in connection with the armed robbery of a Lower Makefield convenience store. He was formally charged last week with the Bristol robberies. 

Roland "Woody" Woodward IV

The first robbery at the Rite-Aid pharmacy in the Bristol Commerce Center occurred Feb. 17, just before 11:30 a.m. Employees told police a man wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and white sneakers entered the store, and headed straight for the pharmacy. The pharmacist said he approached the man when he entered an “employees only” area. The suspect pulled out a small handgun and ordered the pharmacist to remove oxycodone from the safe and put it in a bag, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He also demanded Adderall, a prescription stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder, but the pharmacist said he didn’t have access to that drug. The gunman left the store with 20 bottles of prescription painkillers worth $4,000, police said.

The next robbery occurred in late May, according to police, who said the pharmacist identified the robber as the same man who robbed the store in February. The suspect ordered the pharmacist to turn over Adderall, Percocet and Dilaudid, both prescription painkillers, which he did.

On July 27, the same gunman, this time wearing a blue jacket and gloves, entered the Rite-Aid, approached the pharmacy counter, pointed a gun at an employee and ordered him to the ground. The suspect then ordered another employee to give him the money in the cash register. The suspect also took $10,700 worth of painkillers and amphetamines.

The robberies remained unsolved until October, when three drug stores in Falls and Lower Makefield were robbed at gunpoint by a man who displayed similar mannerisms and behaviors as the person wanted in the Bristol drug store robberies. The suspect was also seen getting into a similar car as one used in one of the Rite-Aid robberies, according to court documents.

After Woodward was arrested, a Lower Makefield detective learned that Morrisville police had stopped him in August and found eight pharmacy bottles in his possession, according to the affidavit. Woodward was arraigned on the new charges last Thursday. They included six counts of robbery, three counts of theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, and simple assault. His bail was set at 10 percent of $500,000, but Woodward remains incarcerated in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $250,000 bail set in the Lower Makefield robbery.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia.