A team of robbers who hit three drug stores in Carroll County within 47 minutes Tuesday are still being sought by state and local police.
In the first incident, a man with a butcher knife tried to rob the Rite Aid Pharmacy in the 140 Village Shopping Center in Westminster about 7:51 p.m.
Store employees described the robber as a white man, 5 feet 7 bTC inches tall, weighing 150 to 180 pounds, and 20 to 24 years old. He was wearing dark-framed glasses, a dark baseball cap with gold braid on the visor, a tan jacket, light-colored pants and black tennis shoes.
After questioning an employee, the man brandished a knife toward Vincent DiPaula, the pharmacist, who grabbed the weapon, receiving a small cut on his right hand.
Mr. DiPaula said his assailant, who attempted to force him toward the drug supply cabinet, fled without obtaining anything.
The assailant escaped in a pickup truck driven by a second man.
At 8:30 p.m., a man fitting the same description entered the Revco Drug Store in the 2300 block of Hanover Pike in Hampstead and demanded drugs from a cashier while threatening her with a knife.
Eight minutes later, the Manchester Pharmacy, in the 3100 block of Westminster Street in Manchester, was robbed in a similar fashion. State police refused to say what was taken in each of the last two robberies.