Not on this druggist’s watch.

Jeff Robb says his London pharmacy hasn’t been robbed since he took over the family-run business nearly three decades ago.

So, when two masked men burst into Turner’s Drug Store Tuesday and demanded narcotics, Robb did something unexpected.

He hurled his druggist’s spatula at the two would-be thieves and screamed at them to get out of his Old South store.

The projectile, a wooden-handled device that resembles a knife, was enough to make the men flee empty-handed.

“(It was) a very unorthodox and non-textbook way to defend my store, and I probably could have regretted it, but it made me feel pretty good,” Robb said later.

The quick-thinking pharmacist also followed the fleeing pair outside to catch a glimpse of their getaway vehicle.

London police say they were called to the pharmacy at 52 Grand Ave., at the corner of Carfrae Crescent, for a reported robbery at 3:11 p.m.

Two suspects fled in a vehicle trvelling north, said Const. Kim Flett, adding no arrests had been made.

The store’s surveillance system captured the robbery attempt.

Robb was working with four employees, all women, and there were no customers in the store at the time. He was behind the drug-dispensing counter with his two-year-old dachshund, Willie, when the men entered the business.

Neither was armed and they didn’t specify what type of drugs they wanted, said Robb, who described the men as both more than six feet tall and in their late twenties.

“I would say that they were big guys. I don’t know why they thought I was a threat to them, but I was maniacal,” he said.

“It was adrenaline.”

Established in 1938 by Stanley Gray Turner, the pharmacy is London’s oldest drug store and one of the city’s few remaining independent operations.

Robb’s father, Charles, bought the business in 1965 after working there as a pharmacist alongside the founder for 14 years.

Robb, who started working at the family business in 1974, took it over in 1987.

Though pharmacy robberies happen almost monthly in London, Robb said his store, sandwiched between Old South and downtown, hasn’t been hit since he took the helm.

“I think this is a really bad location for a robbery,” he said.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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