Suspect in Medicap robbery was recognized by store employee

When Harrison S. Foster entered the Medicap Pharmacy on Kingshighway Wednesday evening, one of the drugstore employees recognized him as the man who tried to rob the Scott City Medicap two weeks ago and discreetly told her boss.

She said she recognized him because she'd filled a prescription for him at the Cape Girardeau pharmacy the day before the May 14 robbery in Scott City.

When Foster, 20, of Auxvasse, Mo., announced he was robbing the pharmacy and that everyone needed to leave, except for one person who could lock the doors, the pharmacist told his three employees to leave the store and said he would stay, according to a probable-cause statement written and signed by officer James Zeidler of the Cape Girardeau police.

The pharmacist then managed to slip out the back door of the store. When police arrived, Foster was alone in the pharmacy.

After a brief standoff with police, Foster leaned out the drive-through window of the pharmacy and announced "I've got a bomb, and I'm going to blow up the building," the statement said.

Foster was arrested a short while later, after speaking with an officer inside the drugstore.

A search revealed Foster had several methadome pills loose in his pocket and had scattered a number of pill bottles inthe pharmacy while he was in there alone.

Officers from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted in the incident.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle charged Foster with making terrorist threats, possession of controlled substances and attempted pharmacy robbery.

In the Scott City robbery, Foster and his brother, Hunter W. Foster, 18, of Auxvasse are accused of taking a duffel bag into the pharmacy and saying it contained a bomb. The bag was actually filled with shoes.

Both Fosters were charged with pharmacy robbery, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, making a terrorist threat and possession of a controlled substance.

The pharmacy robbery and armed criminal action charges both carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Fosters were arraigned May 20 in Scott County and released on reduced bond two days later after posting $5,000 of the $50,000 bond.

Harrison Foster's bond has now been revoked, and a Cape Girardeau County associate circuit judge set bond at $100,000.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245