CVS manager implicated in pharmacy robberies

Police in West Virginia have arrested a CVS manager for aiding two other suspects in robbing the Charleston store where she worked.

According to the criminal complaint, Kelli Cook provided Charles Jacobs with information about the amount of prescription pills in her store and the dates the pills would be delivered to the pharmacies. Jacobs allegedly told police that he paid Cook $5,000 each time he robbed the store she managed.

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Cook, 41, the store manager at the Oakwood Road CVS in Charleston, has been charged with two counts of second-degree robbery.

Jacobs, 31, who police said robbed the store Cook managed two times plus two other locations, has been charged with four counts of second-degree robbery. A third suspect, Jacobs’ girlfriend Kristy Albright, 38, is accused of driving the getaway car during the robberies.

After several robberies in the area, CVS began installing GPS monitoring systems in prescription pain pill bottles. On Dec. 12, after a robbery of a CVS in Dunbar, West Virginia, police were able to track the suspects.

Realizing they were being pursued, the suspects abandoned their vehicle on a highway exit ramp and fled. Police found empty pill bottles, a mask, and a hooded sweatshirt near the abandoned vehicle. The vehicle was registered to Albright.

Police said Jacobs was eventually arrested and that he confessed to four CVS robberies. He also allegedly told police that he used a pellet gun during the robberies, and that Albright had driven during the robberies.

“[The suspect] orders someone back to the pharmacy and orders the pharmacist to open the safe and steals a substantial number of pills,” Charleston Police Lt. Steve Cooper told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “It’s not common but it’s not rare that when someone robs a store that they’ll go on a spree until they’re caught - until their luck runs out.”