Two Burlington pharmacies held up in less than 24 hours

[B]URLINGTON — City police reported three robberies and an attempted robbery from Friday night through Sunday morning. In all four cases the suspect claimed to be armed but did not brandish a weapon.

The Police Department arrested a suspect in two pharmacy robberies Friday night and Saturday morning.

Brett Boucher, 55, of Burlington was arrested Saturday Dec. 10 after allegedly robbing a Kinney Drugs on Shelburne Road. Police say he is the suspect in another pharmacy robbery the day before. Courtesy photo Burlington Police Department. — Brett Boucher, 55, of Burlington, was arrested Saturday after allegedly robbing a Kinney Drugs on Shelburne Road. Burlington Police Department photo

Police arrested Brett Boucher, 55, of Burlington, in a wooded area off Shelburne Road with an undisclosed amount of cash and prescription drugs Saturday morning. Police allege that a short time earlier Boucher told employees at the nearby Kinney Drugs that he was armed and made threats to hurt them if they did not comply with his demands.

Boucher matches the description of the suspect in a robbery at the Lakeside Pharmacy on Pearl Street. That robbery occurred at roughly 7 p.m. Friday and followed a similar pattern, with the suspect making threats but not displaying a weapon. The suspect in that robbery stole an undisclosed amount of cash and prescription drugs.

Deputy Chief Shawn Burke said Sunday that the drugs stolen included opioid painkillers and the robberies may have been committed to feed an addiction. “My gut tells me it was,” he said.

Boucher is to face a charge of assault and robbery in the Kinney Drugs holdup. The investigation is ongoing, police said, and more charges are possible. Boucher is being held on $25,000 bail at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. He is expected to be arraigned Monday in Chittenden County Superior Court.

Security camera images released by the Burlington Police show the suspect in a robbery at the Champlain Farms on Main Street. — This security camera image released by Burlington police shows the suspect in a robbery at the Champlain Farms on Main Street.

Separately, there was a robbery and an attempted robbery at two downtown Burlington convenience stores over the weekend. The Champlain Farms on Main Street was robbed at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The suspect, a white male wearing blue jeans and a dark hoodie covering much of his face, passed a note to the clerk that said he was armed. The suspect made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Just before 2 a.m. Sunday, a man entered Simon’s Downtown Quickstop on South Winooski Avenue and demanded money before fleeing without any cash. Burke said that suspect didn’t show a weapon either but indicated he was armed. The incident is being investigated as an attempted robbery.

Images from store security video show the suspect in that case is also a white male but wearing a light-colored jacket with the hood obscuring much of his face.

Security camera image released by the Burlington Police Department of the suspect in an attempted robbery at Simon's Downtown Quickstop on Dec. 11, 2016. — A security camera image provided by Burlington police shows the suspect in an attempted robbery at Simon’s Downtown Quickstop on Sunday.

Burke said that given the close proximity of the two convenience store incidents, it’s possible the same suspect was involved in both. But police are still investigating, and no arrest had been made as of Sunday afternoon.

Burlington police made an average of 22 arrests for assault and robbery annually from 2011 to 2015, with a high of 35 arrests in 2015. So far in 2016, police have made 16 arrests for assault and robbery, according to data on the Police Department’s website.

“It’s a bit of an anomaly,” Burke said of the trio of robberies over the weekend.

“Generally we do see an uptick of robberies for profit around the holiday season,” Burke said, though he said it’s unclear if the pharmacy robberies were motivated by profit or addiction.

Morgan True