The OPP arrested a man on Wednesday afternoon after back-to-back attempted robberies of pharmacies in Meaford and Thornbury.

The drama began Wednesday morning at the Thornbury PharmaSave when a man entered the store and demanded the drug OxyContin, while making threats with a syringe the man claimed to be contaminated with the AIDS virus. Staff at the store denied the man the drug and he fled the store.

Minutes later he arrived in Meaford at Muxlows Pharmacy and repeated his demands again claiming he had a syringe contaminated with AIDS. The man fled the store with a small quantify of the drug after police were called.

Chris Davies is a Pharmacist working at Muxlows and he was working at the time of the incident. One of the staff notified him about the man and the demands he was making. Davies said he and his staff dealt with the situation as quickly and calmly as possible. The drama ended quickly when the man fled when police were called.

"A guy walked in and asked for drugs. He threatened us with a syringe contaminated with AIDS," said Davies, who noted that the situation ended almost as quickly as it began. "He was here less than five minutes. I didn't go drop kick him or anything," he said.

Davies said the drug the man demanded from the pharmacy is one that is commonly abused.

After leaving the store the man fled in a black car with a tinted plastic cover over the rear license plates that made it difficult for witnesses to identify a plate number. Not long after the attempted robbery a vehicle matching the description was located unoccupied just outside Meaford.

A short time later, the suspect was arrested.

Sean Caruso, 25, of Ancaster, has been arrested and charged with robbery with a weapon and attempted robbery with a weapon. He appeared in Owen Sound Court on Thursday morning.

Davies said he was at the police station giving a statement when police located the man. He was able to assist with the identification of the suspect.

The OPP forensics team attended the stores after the incident to gather evidence.

"Police forensics were here for awhile in the afternoon," said Davies, who noted that everybody at the store remained calm and dealt with the situation as best they could, adding the staff member who informed him about the situation was so calm he didn't grasp what was happening at first.

Grey County OPP media relations officers Steve Starr said in an interview that both incidences were provoked by a drug problem.

"It's evident the drug played a major role in driving this individual to do what he did," said Starr.

"We take any sort of robbery with a threat of violence very seriously. The Crime Unit and our officers didn't pull out any stops until we made an arrest. In this case things went pretty smoothly, the response to both locations were quick and things between the Grey County OPP and The Blue Mountains OPP were seamless," he said.