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DeLand pharmacy tech allegedly stole 90 pills a day

DELAND, Fla. — A DeLand pharmacy technician was arrested on trafficking and theft charges Thursday.

Investigators said Rachel Parkins, 31, stole tens of thousands of prescription pain killers in the last nine months.

"That's very surprising. You hear about it with these smaller places but nothing like this," said a DeLand resident.

Drug Enforcement Administration investigators said they caught Parkins on video, filling her pockets with pills a couple of times a day.

She claims she only stole 4,500, but reports show she took about 90 pills a day since February, which comes out to about 21,000 pills.

Customer Juan Morado's wife works at the store and said the incident's been a big topic with employees.

"The lady was actually leaving the pharmacy and going out of the lawn and garden and they just thought she was going out to have a cigarette," Morado said.

Parkins said she was taking the pills herself because of stress.

"There's no way. She would have been dead by now. You can't take that many," a resident said.

Investigators suspect she was also selling them, since the value of the pills is more than $112,000.

"I wonder how she got away with it for so long?" asked a resident.

Eyewitness News asked the Department of Health when it last did an inspection, but that information wasn't available Thursday.

A local pharmacist said he's only inspected once a year, it's a random visit, and the DOH doesn't count any of his inventory. Instead, it's more concerned about expired medicine and a clean pharmacy.