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A pharmacy manager allegedly took about 20,000 pills over the course of his employment with Walmart in Chickasha.
The estimated loss to Walmart from the thefts exceeded $21,299.80 according to a report from the Chickasha Police Department.
The store’s surveillance camera showed multiple incidents of Barry Neil Smith taking the pills, according to an incident report. Smith allegedly placed unidentified pills into a pill bottle and then placed the bottle in his pocket. Smith would then immediately go to a pharmacy bathroom before returning back into view of the surveillance camera.
A plastic bag containing Oxycodone was recovered from Smith’s person at the time of his arrest.
Smith allegedly admitted he altered the pharmacy’s spread sheet that records the distribution and amount of controlled substances prescribed to customers. An asset protection manager told authorities Smith had marked numerous entries by highlighting and initialing them. The asset protection manager said Smith identified the marked entries as incidents where he had stolen controlled substances from the pharmacy. Smith allegedly admitted to purposefully altering the count recorded in the registry to conceal the discrepancies in the overall count, the incident report said.
The spread sheet showed a 10 months of Smith allegedly falsifying the spreadsheet about 205 times, Chickasha Police Officer, Shayne Melton, said.
Smith allegedly said he would pour about 100 pills into an empty bottle and place the bottle in his pocket. Once there, he would pour the pills into a plastic bag and put the bag back in his pocket., the report said.
Smith allegedly admitted to accessing the pharmacy computer to alter the count on the pharmacy’s inventory to conceal the discrepancies.
The controlled substances recorded were mostly Oxycodone, Hydromorphone and Fentanyl. Smith also allegedly admitted to stealing Carisoprodol and Phentermine.
When Smith was interviewed by authorities, he allegedly said he had an addiction that had begun many years prior when he sustained a back injury. Smith also said he suffered from anxiety as a result of working as a pharmacist. Smith said he knew this was no excuse for his alleged crimes.
Smith faces charges of obtaining a controlled dangerous substance by fraud. He was transported to the Grady County Jail.