According to the Associated Press, “thieves cut a hole in the roof of warehouse, rappelled inside and scored one of the biggest hauls of its kind …” About $75 million worth of antidepressants and other drugs.

What?

I have been a reporter for a long time and I have covered a lot of heists, but this is really, really weird. It gets even weirder: “The pills — stolen from Eli Lilly & Co. in quantities big enough to fill a tractor trailer — are believed to be destined for the black market, perhaps overseas.”

What!

It appears the thieves scaled the brick walls of the warehouse in Enfield, Connecticut, during a rainstorm before daybreak on Sunday. They lowered themselves to the floor, disabled the alarms and loaded up on Prozac, Cymbalta and Zyprexa. (I am having a vision of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Bernie Mac studying the blueprints of a drug warehouse in quaint, little, historic Enfield — also the U.S. headquarter of toy maker Lego and a major distribution center for Hallmark Cards. I’m not making this up.)

I have heard of heists of narcotics, such as oxycodone and Vicodin — drugs that can get you high. But who would spend a Saturday night snorting Cymbalta? The Enfield thieves obviously did their homework. The warehouse is Lilly’s largest East Coast distributorship. The building is non-descript and unmarked. The loot — $75 million worth of drugs — sounds like a lot of money, but not when you look at the company’s earnings. Two of the drugs are Lilly’s best sellers. Zyprexa was Lilly’s top earner in the 4th quarter of 2009  with $1.3 billion in sales. Cymbalta followed, with sales of $830 during the 4th quarter. $75 million won’t bankrupt Lilly.

Still there is something really disturbing about an epic heist of antidepressants. I doubt the thieves are Robin Hoods who will stick it to Lilly by giving away Prozac, Cymbalta and Zyprexa to the uninsured masses suffering from depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. But maybe it will drive down the cost of these medications on the black market, the only place where many uninsured can get their medications.

I don’t know where I am going with this. I don’t know the moral of this story. But I know it has something to do with greed, desperation and health insurance. Hmmmmm.

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (March 17, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 17 Mar 2010