Joel Houtz, 34, has been arrested by officers with the police department of Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. The department has yet to confirm whether or not he is a resident of the city.
On the morning of December 14, 2023, Houtz allegedly entered the Consumer Value Stores (CVS) store on Old Todds Road in Lexington with a firearm, which he pointed at the employees of the store. He allegedly demanded narcotics and tied the employees up before fleeing the store with prescription narcotics.
At around 3:30 a.m., Lexington Police Department officers responded to the robbery. Using the Real-Time Intelligence Center and Flock license plate readers, detectives identified him as the suspect.
On December 15, 2023, officers with the police department of Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky helped Lexington Police Department officers arrest Houtz in Clark County. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in Winchester on first-degree robbery, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.
CVS is the largest healthcare company in the world. It was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA in 1963 by Stanley Goldstein, Sidney Goldstein and Ralph Hoagland.
Headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, USA, CVS has more than 9,600 locations including the one on Old Todds Road in Lexington. Since February 1, 2021, Karen S. Lynch has been serving as the chief executive officer of the company.
On November 23, 2021, a federal jury found that CVS, Walgreens and Walmart helped fuel an opioid epidemic in two counties in Ohio, USA. On November 2, 2022, CVS agreed to pay about $5 billion over 10 years while Walgreens agreed to pay about $5.7 billion over 15 years and Walmart agreed to pay $3.1 billion mostly up front.
CONAN Daily 