Robber used syringe in heist
A man is accused of robbing a Maryland CVS of $27,000 in prescription drugs by threatening a pharmacist with a blood-filled syringe that he said was contaminated with the AIDS virus.
Howard County police said Benjamin Blessing, 52, forced a pharmacist to open a safe containing prescription medications by holding a syringe that he said contained AIDS-tainted blood to her chest.
Investigators have confirmed that the syringe contained blood but are still conducting tests to determine whether it was tainted with AIDS.
Blessing was charged in another robbery, this time using a stun gun. Police said he used it to try to rob a woman and her 4-year-old child at an ATM in Columbia.
Police impersonator robs woman
A police impersonator pulled over a female driver and robbed her, police said.
It happened in Silver Spring around 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
The robber demanded her driver’s license and registration, and ordered her to get out of the car and sit on the curb. He then took her purse and cellphone, and drove away in his black compact car with blue Maryland tags.
The robber is described as a black male, about 26 years old, 5-feet-10 and 190 pounds with tattoos on both arms. He was wearing a black baseball cap with a police badge emblem, a black police vest with a silver badge, black cargo pants and black boots.
The robber drove a small black compact car with blue Maryland tags.
— Emily Babay and Scott McCabe
