Massapequa Pharmacy Steps Up Security

The sign on the door of  says it all: “We No Longer Stock: Oxycontin Oxycodone Products.”  

Todd Svec, one of the owners of the Massapequa Park pharmacy, said the decision to post the sign came after a on Fathers Day that left two pharmacy employees and two customers dead.

David Laffer, who was sentenced to life in prison in November, was hunting for drugs when he went on a killing spree in the pharmacy. Svec decided right after the tragedy not to take chances with his store.

“We’ve had several calls from people wanting to know if we had those drugs on hand. But since we put the sign up, those calls have dropped dramatically,” Svec said. “There was a time right around when [the murders] happened when it seemed like a friend would tell another one [that we stocked] those drugs, so we decided to stop carrying them on hand.”

The recent , a Massapequan who was killed during a robbery at a Seaford pharmacy, provoked Svec to take other security measures.

He's added more security cameras and other measures to discourage illegal drug seekers and to keep his staff safe.

“We have security cameras; we have panic buttons,” Svec said. “And we’re adding more. I don’t let anyone come in the store by themselves. No one [on staff] is allowed to enter the store alone.”

Svec said since the death of Capano, there hasn’t been any crime in his store and he hasn’t had a problem with customers trying to fill false prescriptions.

“We’re doing what we can," Svec said. "I mean I heard rumors about the bulletproof glass and stuff like that but we’re not up to that yet. We’re just trying to be smart and not careless.”

Svec said he hopes the state of New York will institute a policy in which each time a customer comes in for a prescription, there is a real-time way to verify the authenticity of the prescription.

“I think they are finally talking about something I thought of a long time ago," Svec said. "There is no reason why when we scan in [customer information] that we can’t see in real-time when they had their last prescription. I think they are working toward that, but it’s going to take time.”