Pain from a hip surgery is what a Tulsa pharmacist told authorities drove him to steal thousands of dollars in drugs from his workplace.

According to an affidavit, 37-year-old Chad Gassett was first given Percocet in late 2020 after getting a hip surgery for a lawn-mowing injury.

But he told authorities that after about a year, his doctor stopped prescribing it, but he was still in pain.

He told a state drug agent that’s when he started stealing various painkilling drugs from the TrueHealth Pharmacy near 41st and Yale where he worked.

At first, he told agents, a hundred pills would last him 3 months.

But by the end, he told them he was taking two bottles a month.

Gassett is accused of stealing more than 11,000 pills in all, over roughly two years.

He’s now facing a felony count of Larceny of a Controlled Drug.