Glitter Phingers

Early one afternoon, a fairly suspicious middle aged man came into the pharmacy requesting to get his script from us and have it kept on our script file so he wouldn't lose it. The problem was, the script he wanted was already on file at another pharmacy a fair distance away and was for an item considered to be a 'dangerous drug'.

We agreed to keep the script for him, but before we could dispense any part of it, we required the hard copy of the script, verification of the Doctor who wrote it and permission from the health department due to the medication's potentially harmful nature. The client agreed while I followed up with his previous pharmacy, his Doctor and the health department.

While he waited he wandered the shop, and due to the shadiness of his demeanour, another pharmacist followed his actions on CCTV when he wasn't busy.

I managed to contact the previous pharmacy who informed me that the man had discussed the situation with them and the pharmacist was prepared to fax a copy of the script to me then post it in the mail. The pharmacist was also aware further verification would be required before it could be sent to us.

Once we received the fax, verification of the Doctor was fairly simple, however, permission from the health department was taking some time which seemed to make the client fairly anxious. He was asking every few minutes if it was ok to grab his medication to which the reply was, "No, we are still waiting on the health department."

He continued to look around the shop, then approached me again to say he would come back in a few minutes, of which I was very pleased due to his annoying requests every few minutes. Just before he left, the other pharmacist on duty thought he saw the client put something in his pocket from the skincare section.

Checking back through the video footage, it was confirmed he did take something, but we couldn't make out what it was. Before he returned, I contacted his previous pharmacy and spoke to the same pharmacist again indicating we would no longer help him as he had just stolen from us and not to forward the script.

On his return, the other pharmacist on duty approached the client asking him to return the product he stole. The client denied any wrong doing initially, until we showed him the CCTV footage. He retrieved the item from his back pocket of which was a skin lotion containing glitter!!

"Why would you steal a glitter lotion?" The pharmacist asked.

"Uh, I don't know. It was taking so long and I'm a little weird in the head. I haven't had my medication today," he replied. "Can I get my medication yet? Have they called back?"

"Sorry, you stole from us," I said, "You're not getting anything from us."

The other pharmacist on duty then said, "Because you stole from us we're going to call the cops now."

At this point, his obvious addiction to his medication come forth, yelling and swearing at the other pharmacist on duty then saying, "You got something against me? huh?" and put his hands up as if it was the first round of a boxing match.

He began trying to punch and kick the pharmacist and a bit of a struggle developed. The pharmacist corralled him to the front door as I pushed the panic button for the police to arrive. At the front door, he tried to kick the pharmacist again and accidentally hit a customer. Other customers were yelling at him to stop being such a dick-head, and a couple of them also contacted the police as it was a fairly scary scene.

He eventually left, at which point I realised it was well after the end of my shift. I made sure everyone was OK then went home...



HEY! Don't judge me! Everyone was OK! I didn't abandon them!!

To put you at ease, the customer he kicked didn't get hit hard and was ok. Also, the cops arrived just before I left and I gave them my statement as well as the name and address of the crazy middle aged man who stole body glitter for no apparent reason! He wasn't smart enough to realise we had all his details on the faxed copy of his prescription...