Medication stolen

COEUR d'ALENE - While a Coeur d'Alene woman was grabbing breakfast Monday with a neighbor, a burglar was at her apartment grabbing her medication.

The woman told the Coeur d'Alene Police Department that she was out to breakfast for less than two hours. When she returned home, she discovered the door to a kitchen cupboard was open and two prescription bottles were missing.

"Medication is commonly targeted in residential burglaries," Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Christie Wood said. "We find that most of our burglary and theft cases are somehow drug-related."

According to an Idaho State Police study of drug and alcohol related offenses and arrests, the number of incidents in Idaho involving prescription drugs has increased approximately 191 percent since 2005.

The average amount of prescription drug pills seized between 2005 and 2011 was 14,004. In 2012, the amount of pills seized by Idaho law enforcement jumped to 16,517.

No other items were missing from the woman's apartment that was burglarized earlier this week. The police incident report does not indicate what kind of medication was stolen.

The woman also told police that the neighbor she went to breakfast with was also the victim of a burglary. In that burglary, which happened Saturday, prescription medication was also targeted.

Wood said that after an arrest has been made in a burglary case involving prescription medication, a suspect will often admit to a drug addiction.

"Prescription medication has become the drug of choice of many individuals," Wood said, adding that many medications such as oxycodone are "highly" addictive.