AUGUSTA — The 19-year-old accused of robbing a pharmacy in Augusta this week was turned in by his mother after she recognized him in surveillance photos taken at another pharmacy the teen had intended to rob before losing his nerve.
Anthony Post, of Lewiston, appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bangor within hours of his arrest and waived his right to bail. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk ordered Post to be held in custody pending trial.
Additional Photos
Post has admitted robbing the CVS store at 2 Stone St. Tuesday afternoon, according to an affidavit filed in court by FBI agent Cameron Mizell. Post, who threatened to use a gun during the holdup, robbed the store minutes after entering the Walgreens pharmacy at 403 Water St. with the idea of robbing it.
However, Post “chickened out,” Mizell wrote, and went across town to CVS. The robbery occurred about 15 minutes after Post left Walgreens, Mizell said.
A Walgreens pharmacist had grown suspicious of the man after noticing he was standing in the same area for some time and was looking at the pharmacy counter repeatedly.
“The pharmacist … went to speak with him,” Mizell wrote. “The man asked something about diabetic supplies. They spoke briefly, and then the man left.”
Walgreens employees reviewed their surveillance video and provided police with two photos of a man wearing the same clothing as the CVS robber. Unlike photos taken by CVS surveillance equipment, which showed a man wearing a hat and a scarf around his face, the Walgreens photos clearly showed the man’s upper body, including his uncovered head and face.
Police released the Walgreens photos to the news media. Post’s mother and a woman friend of his father’s recognized the man pictured, and both women called police. Post’s mother called police again Thursday morning.
“She advised that she had spoken with her son about a half-hour earlier and that he was with his girlfriend at her apartment,” Mizell wrote. Police arrested Post outside the apartment less than two hours later as he and his girlfriend were moving out.
Investigators believe it was Post who walked into the CVS shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday and handed a pharmacy technician a note demanding OxyContin. The note told the pharmacist to act “quickly and calmly,” Mizell wrote.
“If not I have a gun will start shooting,” the note said. “No scene.”
Post fled the store with the pill bottles in a bag. The bottles were found later on Eastern Avenue, Mizell said.
Police released the Walgreens photos Wednesday morning — though news media reported the photos as being from CVS, because police did not suggest otherwise — and within a few hours, authorities heard from a woman claiming to a live-in friend of Post’s father.
“She stated that the man in the photos of the pharmacy was Anthony Post and that he lives with her and Anthony Post’s father most of the time,” Mizell wrote.
Post’s mother called a short time later, claiming the photos were of her son. She called police the next morning to tell them where Post was.
Post was interviewed at the Augusta Police Department a short time later.
“In summary, Post again admitted, in greater detail, that he robbed the CVS … after he had gone into the Walgreens pharmacy to rob it, but had chickened out,” Mizell wrote.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
ccrosby@centralmaine.com
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