Spokane police have arrested a 5-foot-tall woman in connection with a Sept. 27 pharmacy robbery and believe she may have been struck with a metal bar this week in a thwarted attempt at a different store.

Ariel A. Arrieta, 20, appeared in Spokane County Superior Court on one count of first-degree robbery in connection with an OxyContin holdup on Sept. 27 at a Rite Aid Pharmacy, 5520 N. Division St. She's being held in Spokane County Jail on $30,000 bail.

Police said she is also a suspect in the attempted robbery Monday night at the Rite Aid at Wandermere. In that incident, a woman also described as 5-foot-tall handed an employee a note demanding OxyContin but was turned away when another employee hit her with a metal bar, causing her to run away.

A tip from a woman who said she's twice helped Arrieta with her OxyContin addiction helped police identify her as a suspect, according to a probable cause affidavit.

"(She) not only noticed Ariel looked like the armed robber, but the robbery suspect in the video walked just like Ariel," according to the affidavit.

Arrieta's boyfriend told police a friend had given her a handgun and that person and two others drove with them to Spokane. The boyfriend waited in a parking lot for Arrieta and the two to return from the robbery, he told police.

"Ariel and the two unnamed coconspirators argued over who should get what quantity of the OxyContin," according to the affidavit. "The three subjects eventually each took an amount of OxyContin."

Watch a video of Arrieta allegedly in action here.

Video from the botched robbery Monday night hasn't been released, but something tells me it might be worthy of failblog.org.

The only other unsolved pharmacy robbery occured at the Walgreens in Post Falls. Read about it here.

---

---