A Walgreens worker said she stole Percocet and Xanax so the store wouldn’t be robbed

Tribune Content Agency

MIAMI — A Belle Glade, Fla., Walgreens’ pharmacy technician had a novel explanation for her theft of hundreds of Xanax and Percocet tablets, police say.

She wanted to keep a cousin from robbing the store.

That’s according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via Taliseya McGee’s arrest form. Though the form said the 23-year-old eventually admitted the person wasn’t a true cousin, the lack of a family tree didn’t prevent her from getting the switch, administratively and legally.

The Florida Department of Health suspended McGee’s license last month. She was arrested. After she posted $24,000 bond, prosecutors decided to take no action on the charges of possession of oxycodone, possession of Xanax, grand theft and one count of trafficking in 25 grams to 100 grams of oxycodone.

McGee still faces one count of trafficking in 25 grams to 100 grams of oxycodone, possession of Xanax and organized scheme to defraud under $20,000.

McGee maintained her innocence in the incident that both the arrest report and the health department’s emergency suspension order said sparked a Walgreens investigation: a customer saying a 90-tablet Percocet prescription was 30 tablets short in October.

After an in-house investigation, Walgreens called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. According to the arrest report, McGee admitted taking 500 oxycodone (brand name: Percocet) and 300 alprazolam (brand name: Xanax) tablets worth $2,297.60 from the Walgreens at 101 N. Main St. She would be accused of taking 564 Percocet and 1,045 Xanax tablets.

McGee said she did so while filling prescriptions, dropping the pills or an entire bottle into her pocket. Later, when speaking with sheriff’s office investigators, she said she took them because her cousin threatened to rob the Walgreens pharmacy otherwise.

McGee then admitted he wasn’t her cousin, but someone she had grown up with in Sarasota. Then, she claimed she didn’t know his name, just his nickname, “Yellow.” In her cellphone, his number, from the 941 area code, was listed under “Vegas Business,” according to the report.

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