STAUNTON – A former pharmacy technician who was in training in 2023 when she allegedly stole narcotics from the Walmart pharmacy in Staunton was arrested Wednesday on a federal court charge, court documents show.
Niquelle A. Madden is charged with theft of a medical product.
According to federal authorities, Madden was employed as a pharmacy technician at the Walmart pharmacy in Staunton and was in training in February 2023 when she was asked to fill a prescription.
“Walmart is a company in the supply chain for the medical product available prior to retail sale,” said an affidavit from a special agent with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
On the day in question, Madden was asked to fill a prescription and the pharmacist gave her a new, unopened supply bottle of hydrocodone/acetaminophen. After she opened the bottle and began filling the prescription, a lead pharmacy technician observed her counting the pills but noticed that she had not double-counted the prescription. She was then instructed to do a second count, which is Walmart policy.
A Walmart pharmacy manager also observed Madden as she filled the hydrocodone/acetaminophen medication. When Madden finished, she asked to take a lunch break, which the manager found “odd,” according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg.
The manager instructed the pharmacist to do a recount to confirm the number of pills in the bottle. The pharmacist concluded that four pills were missing. “There were 86 pills in the supply bottle when there should have been 90,” the affidavit states.
The pharmacy manager then accessed the store’s surveillance system, which has “cameras in all areas of the pharmacy where counts are conducted,” the affidavit states.
Surveillance footage showed Madden counting pills to complete the prescription and placing them in a counting tray. “Madden then looked around the pharmacy, put her index finger in the tray, and let four more pills slide out,” the affidavit states.
That same day, Madden was confronted by Walmart Asset Protection employees. She admitted to stealing the pills. She said she took them home on her lunch break and gave them to a relative for pain relief. Madden denied taking the medication and said she had never stolen drugs in the past.
However, thefts had already been discovered in the past two weeks, the special counsel said. Two subsequent inventory audits revealed that Walmart had suffered “multiple substance deficiencies related to Madden’s employment,” the special counsel said in the affidavit.
The pharmacy manager said more than a dozen pills of Adderall and oxycodone were missing. A further review of surveillance footage showed that Madden stole the drugs, the affidavit states.
In August 2023, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy held a formal meeting where it voted 7-0 to revoke Madden’s license as a pharmacy technician.
On Wednesday, she was arrested in Abingdon on federal charges.
She was originally arrested in 2023, the same day she was allegedly caught stealing the narcotics, and was charged with five counts of prescription fraud, according to Staunton District Court records. The local charges were not pursued after federal authorities asked to take over the case.
According to court records, Madden was released on $25,000 unsecured bail following her arrest Wednesday.
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Brad Zinn is the police, courts and breaking news reporter for The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs to be investigated? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at [email protected]. You can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter).
