The Community Pharmacy building located along Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Tyrone was burglarized in the early morning hours of Wednesday, November 12. When Tyrone Borough Police arrived on the scene that morning at 7 a.m., officers found that both windows of the pharmacy’s entry doors were smashed with a brick.
A surveillance tape was viewed by police that showed a white male breaking the outer door window with a brick around 1 a.m. The same man came back at 4 a.m., and shattered the inner door window with what appeared to be a hammer. The burglar then came back a third time at 6 a.m. and entered the store, but then quickly fled.
Tyrone Borough Police Chief Joe Beachem issued a statement Friday morning describing the suspected burglar as wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with blue stripes down the shoulders and sleeves. He said the surveillance video didn’t catch a clear view of the man’s face, since he covered his face with a handkerchief.
Beachem considered the robbery drug-fueled, since the burglar went back to the area of the store where the prescription drugs are kept, but he said that nothing appeared to be taken.
Police said Friday morning that there was one solid lead in identifying the suspect.
By late Friday morning, borough police arrested 27-year-old Shane A. Snyder of Tyrone for the Community Pharmacy burglary. Clothing that was worn during the burglary was obtained by police, as well as other evidence.
Police confirmed that Snyder obtained nothing from the pharmacy during the crime, but he had been in search of the powerful prescription painkiller Oxycontin.
Beachem said that Snyder was interviewed by borough officers and committed to Blair County Prison.
“We have reason to believe he wanted Oxycontin, because he thought he could make a lot of money from selling the pills,” stated Beachem.
On the same morning Community Pharmacy was burglarized, the Dollar General Store in RD 4 Tyrone also had its front door windows smashed out with a brick between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., but entry was not made into the building. Police didn’t confirm that Snyder was involved in that separate incident.
“We’re still looking to see if there’s a link to the Dollar Store break-in,” said Beachem.
