 |
| What would you do if you found out your friend was stealing your prescription pain meds for many months running? |
What a difficult situation. And then to complicate it--nobody does anything about it when it is reported.
What a conundrum.
Here is what I was told by a constituent(names and other information redacted). Now I'm not a cop and I'm not a psychologist--I'm just a commissioner. But I have a response for this constituent and below her email is my response.....
"I came to the XXXXXXXXXXXX to file a report @ catching a thief in my car back in
December. Yes, I know they can't do anything now but I wanted to at least to
give a sworn statement & have it on record because since me coming out on XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, 5 other people have also come forward with similar
stories surrounding this person. I was told no, it was too late to file a
report. .
This has caused me great concern & I'm worried not just
for my own safety but the new people in XXXXXXXX who see this person on XXXXXXXXXXXXx & believe XXXXXXX represents us. XXXXXX does present well by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX & is vocal XXXXXXXXXXXXX. But XXXXXX is
staining the values we represent in the XXXXXXXXXXXX& I don't want
anyone else to be a victim.
XXXXXX was my friend & I knew XXXXXXXhad a problem with XXXXXXXX but to see XXXXXX in my vehicle digging through my purse XXXXXXXXXXX devastated me. I had been missing pills from my prescription bottles
for months but couldn't figure out who it was or when it could've happened.
Every month they kept going missing - first just 5 or 6, then 10-15. I didn't
report it right then & there because and only because i was in shock. Our
kids were there & I just wanted to get out of there.
Fast forward 2 months later at XXXXXXXXXX. I'm talking to one
of our XXXXXXXXXXX & I confide in him about what had happened. He tells
me I'm not the 1st person that this had happened to. So I dug a little more and
asked a few more questions to a few more XXXXXXXXX people & got the same
answers. I posted a very vague, but obvious to the victims, description
of what happened to me & I got 3 messages privately telling me same
stories.
So at that point I figured XXXXXXXXX has a problem community
member that needs to be on watch.
I thought with the crackdown on prescription
abuse SOMEONE would want to talk to me since I know what and how this person is
doing it. But no, I guess not!
Just really upsets me because people with legitimate
pain issues like myself who suffer from a debilitating XXXXXXXXX had to
fight tooth and nail to get into a doctor to get a prescription yet someone
like this can abuse XXXXXXX steal from others including XXXXXXXXXr and get away
with it.
I hope you can provide some insight or maybe help me get
this reported to the right person in the sheriff's office. We don't want this
kind of person in our neighborhood."
My Response...
Thank
you for this frank and candid narrative of what sounds like a very troubling
problem. I want to be careful about what is posted here, because XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. I am not a Law Enforcement officer—but I do
know a little bit about the law due to what my brother does and due to the fact
that we talk about issues on almost a daily basis.
It
sounds to me as if this individual is an addict. XXXXXXX needs help.
Someone (hopefully a friend or family member) will conduct an intervention—this
sounds necessary to me based upon what you are saying here.
If
this behavior continues—it could have disastrous consequences for this
individual. What I know is that Florida has cracked down on prescription
medicine abuse, instituting stiff minimum mandatory sentences for individuals
caught with even small amounts of prescription meds for which these individuals
do not hold a valid prescription.
If XXXXXXXXXXXXX won’t investigate this, I suggest you call the XXXXXXXXXX and tell them
everything you know—they WILL do something about it I would suspect.
Good
luck and please let me know if I can help in any way. The best thing you
can do is help your friend, talk to someone who will intervene or else this
person will get caught, and XXXXXXX will go to state prison for a long time and the
judge won’t have any discretion at all due to minimum sentencing guidelines in
effect currently.
R/
Jeff
Bergosh
Chairman
Escambia
Board of County Commissioners
221
Palafox Place Suite 400
Pensacola,
FL 32502
850-595-4910
office
850-377-2209
Voicemail
@jeffbergosh
No comments:
Post a Comment