Drug burglaries in Cape, Hayti may be linked

Police think a burglary at a Hayti, Mo., drugstore early Friday morning may be linked to one in Cape Girardeau on April 7.

Hayti police chief Paul Sheckell said Monday that the Prescription Drug Store located across the street form the Hayti police station was burglarized at 1:07 a.m. Friday in the same manner the Medicine Shoppe, 864 N. Kingshighway, had been in Cape Girardeau.

In both instances the front door was broken through and thieves bypassed other items in the stores to break into the pharmacy's narcotics drawer and take the drugs, Sheckell said.

Sheckell said he contacted the Cape Girardeau Police Department to compare notes. Cape Girardeau police gave Sheckell a copy of the Medicine Shoppe's surveillance video which showed two men taking drugs out of the pharmacy drawer. The tape was forwarded to KFVS12 to send to its affiliates in Tennessee and Arkansas to air on the nightly news, Sheckell said. The Hayti store had no video system.

Sheckell thinks the suspect or suspects live in either of those two states after finding a cash drawer liner belonging to the Hayti pharmacy along the southbound lanes of I-55.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hayti Police Department at 573-359-1259, the Pemiscot County Sheriff's Department at 573-333-4101 or the Cape Girardeau Police Department at 573-335-6621.

Calls will remain confidential, Sheckell said.