Gabler’s suspect charged
State police in Greene County filed charges Friday afternoon against the man accused of robbing Gabler’s Drug store in Carmichaels twice during a two-week robbery spree in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Joshua Cain Abel, 29, of 315 Brown St., Everson, faces felony charges of robbery, criminal attempt and three misdemeanor counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault. State police also filed a theft charge against Abel through District Judge Lee Watson’s office.
West Virginia state troopers captured Abel about 6 p.m. Wednesday when they spotted him driving on Interstate 68 near Morgantown.
Abel is also accused of pharmacy robberies in Uniontown, South Union Township and Scottdale in Pennsylvania, along with two heists in West Virginia.
Police said Abel went to Gabler’s shortly after 3 p.m. Jan. 16 and passed a note to a pharmacist claiming he was armed and demanding prescription pain medication, according to court documents.
“I have a gun, I want 3 to 5 bottles of Oxycodone,” the note read.
The pharmacist pushed a hidden emergency alarm button and retrieved three bottles that each contained 100 Oxycodone pills, police said. Abel held his right hand in his pocket during the robbery, but never showed a gun, police said.
The Rite Aid pharmacy in Uniontown was robbed an hour earlier, police said.
Investigators said Abel returned to the Carmichaels drug store again Jan. 25 with the hood of his sweatshirt tied “tightly around his face,” police said.
As he slid a note across the pharmacy counter, a worker immediately pushed the panic button and Abel ran from the store with the paper.
Police said he also robbed Nickman’s Drug Store in South Union Township later that same day.
State police in Greene County worked with troopers from the Uniontown barracks to identify Abel as the suspect, according to court documents.
Both the pharmacist and assistant at Gabler’s identified Abel as the robber from photographs showed to them Jan. 28, police said.
Following his arrest Wednesday night, investigators said Abel admitted to at least seven pharmacy robberies in the two states. He told police he used all of the drugs stolen during the heists.
Abel is being held without bond at the North Central Regional Jail in West Virginia. It was not know when he would be returned to Pennsylvania to face charges in Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.