One man from Florida was recently arrested for the theft of medication, but that wasn't the only bad thing that happened to him that night. Peter Hans Emery, 56, was reportedly staying at someone else's home when he decided to steal from their medicine cabinet, according to the criminal complaint.
He was caught on film at the Pinellas Park home, pouring pills into his hand during the robbery. Entering the bathroom of the 49-year-old victim, whose relationship to Emery is unknown, on Thursday morning, he believed he was taking opioids, but instead took something else entirely: laxatives.
According to The Smoking Gun, Emery's theft was caught on video that morning, where he was seen "entering the victim’s lock box, selecting a pill bottle, pouring pills into his hand, and then leaving.”
The pills were labelled as 'Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen, a pain relief medication that can be highly-addictive. Unfortunately for Emery, the pills inside were actually Equate Gentle Laxative, which promises "predictable overnight relief" from constipation.
Officers from the Pinellas Park Police Department found him on Thursday night, and he quickly admitted to taking the pills after thinking they were Hydrocodone. “He threw them away when he learned they were something else,” investigators noted, although apparently he did ingest some beforehand.
Emery was arrested and booked on a felony charge, as well as probation violation charges for two prior theft and drug possession convictions on his record, the sheriff's office said. He has previously served a combined 28 months in state prison, for the various offenses including drug possession, forgery, auto theft, resisting arrest and burglary.
