As we all learned from watching Love and Other Drugs, there’s plenty of good reasons to keep drug sales reps out of doctor’s offices. They use persuasion and charisma, and sometimes less savory methods, to get doctors to prescribe the drugs they’re pushing, privileging profits over patients. But rather than just be worried about what they’re putting on the doctor’s shelves, doctors should be also worried about what the salespeople might be taking off. That’s the case with a man who was arrested in Northport, New York, for posing as a drug sales rep and then stealing meds from the sample cabinet.

WABC reports the man walked into a doctor’s office on Long Island and claimed to be a drug sales rep who needed to resupply the sample closet. But instead, he took drugs off the shelf. They were mostly Zyrtec.

“He’s very brazen. He dressed the part. He acts the part. He wears a shirt and tie and says that he’s there to deliver the samples,” a Suffolk County police spokesperson told Pharmalot.

The man was arrested after he revisited one of the locations he took drugs from and once again said he needed to resupply the cabinet. This time, police were called after the doctor’s office noticed some of the supplies were gone, and he was arrested.

Apparently he’s allergic to paying for his medicine.

Hold The Samples… That Rep Was Not A Rep [Pharmalot]
Man poses as drug rep to steal prescription painkillers [WABC] (Thanks to Whipkey!)

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