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Two people staged a robbery at a Columbia Walgreen's Monday morning.

Columbia resident Sylvia Lewis, 47, told authorities that a white man wearing a stocking cap and mask stole her purse in the parking lot of the business, located at 222 E. Broadway.

A Boone County Sheriff's deputy found 29-year-old Cole Thomas of Columbia after witnesses reported seeing him behind 33 E. Broadway. The deputy took Thomas into custody with the help of Columbia police.

While interviewing Lewis, officers began to suspect that she knew Thomas. They then discovered the robbery was staged so that, after Lewis refilled her pain medication prescription and had her bag 'stolen', she could file a police report and get a replacement prescription.

Lewis and Thomas admitted to the plan, telling authorities that they were going to illegally sell the extra prescription medication, and were arrested.

Lewis was arrested for filing a false police report and distribution of a controlled substance within 2,000 feet of a school. Thomas was arrested for filing a false police report, felony possession of a controlled substance and for a municipal warrant for stealing.