New York to track thieves with decoy OxyContin bottles

New York police are calling on pharmacies to plant fake pill bottles containing tracking devices to catch painkiller thieves.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) proposed the plan to eliminate the sometimes deadly pharmacy robberies that have plagued the city. OxyContin (oxycodone) manufacturer Purdue Pharma is on board, designing the dummy bottles that the NYPD hopes will lead them to painkiller stashes.

"We would anticipate the burglar and robber will take numerous bottles, and among them will be the bait bottle," the NYPD’s chief spokesman, Paul Browne, told the New York Times. The NYPD wants all 1,800 pharmacies in the city to stock the devices that activate when lifted off shelves.

Purdue Pharma has already installed the fake bottles in some pharmacies to tighten up the final step in its supply chain. Having got the NYPD on board, the rollout should accelerate across the city. In the past two years several people have died at robberies of pharmacies in New York.

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