Lillington, N.C. — Lillington police are looking for the men who committed an armed robbery of McPhail’s Pharmacy, 815 W. Front St., on Wednesday.

The suspects – described as a white man and a black man each in their mid to late 20s – walked into the pharmacy around 6 p.m., police said. Both men were armed. They forced the customers and employees into the back of the pharmacy and made them lie down.

Pharmacy technician Lisa Ledford was behind the counter during the robbery. She said he looked up to see a man holding a gun. “He said, ‘This is for real,’ and if you do as he says, nobody gets hurt,” Ledford said.

Ledford said she and a nearby cashier just held each other in fear. “I told her to close her eyes and it would all be over soon,” she said.

Lillington Police Chief Frank Powers said the men left with about $8,000 worth of painkillers in a backpack

“To my recollection, this is the first armed robbery when narcotics were the target, not cash,” Powers said. “It’s very odd to me.”

However, it is not the first robbery of its kind in the region.

In April, police said two gunmen took Percocet and OxyContin from the CVS pharmacy at 230 Cole Ave. in Raeford.

In Moore County, a crackdown on illegal distribution of prescription drugs recovered more than 7,000 pills this year, compared to 1,700 during all of 2008.

Anyone with information about the robbery should call the Lillington Police Department at 910-658-2862, 910-890-3684 or 910-893-9111.