CVS launches new "time-delayed" narcotic boxes at stores in West Virginia

Thieves may have to think twice now before breaking into CVS Pharmacies.

As of Monday, 58 West Virginia CVS stores have added countdowns to their narcotics safes to hold up potential thieves.

CVS officials say it's common for robbers to want to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Because of this, CVS stores across the state have installed a new Time-Delay in their safes that hold heavy narcotics.

Basically when anyone tries to open the safe, whether it be robber or employee, a timer will begin to countdown and won't open until that time has run out.

Divisional Asset Protection Director for CVS Health, Raymond Sosa says the idea isn't so much to get robbers caught, it's more so to dissuade them from robbing the place at all.

"Robbers want to come in and steal out narcotics, and so the idea is that we want to deter these robberies right, and so, therefore, a would-be robber would come in, they would want a narcotic, they are not willing to hang out and be delayed inside the pharmacy so upon hearing of there being a delay, they would exit the building without the narcotics," said Sosa.

Sosa went on to say that the new system has been implemented in Indianapolis since 2015 and so far they have seen a 70% drop in pharmacy robberies.

WDTV caught up with Bridgeport officer, Sergeant C.S Carpenter, who says although they have not dealt with a pharmacy robbery in a while, he believes the new system could help get some substances off the streets.

"I believe it's probably going to be a good program, it might help with some of the prescription drug problems that we have so maybe we won't see as many pills out on street."

Although the Time-Delay is an inconvenience to robbers, CVS officials say they made sure it will not be an inconvenience for their customers time-wise.

Customers will also not have to change the way they pay or order their prescriptions.