Pharmacist sentenced for stealing drugs

Published 8:12 pm Thursday, August 30, 2018

MAPLE GROVE — A Maple Grove pharmacist who admitted  to stealing 2,000 pills has been sentenced to 4 months in the county workhouse and three years of probation.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Thursday 49-year-old Jeffrey Grothaus has been ordered to report to the Plymouth lockup Sept. 19.

Grothaus earlier pleaded guilty to four felony counts of theft by swindle of a controlled substance from May 2015 to August 2016. Authorities said Grothaus mostly stole the sedative Zolpidem and the pain killer Tramadol from Carlson Pharmacy in Minnetonka and Wayzata Pharmacy in Wayzata where he worked.

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Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Grothaus making computer inventory adjustments and then slipping pills into his pocket.