A 32-year-old Missoula man was charged with 10 felonies Wednesday for allegedly stealing more than 2,000 pain pills from a health clinic and forging numerous prescriptions at area pharmacies.

Aleksandr F. Chinikaylo was arrested Tuesday after trying to fill fake prescriptions at two pharmacies within about an hour's time. He admitted to forging prescriptions at other pharmacies over a three-month period, according to charging records filed in Missoula County Justice Court.

An employee at CVS Pharmacy on Brooks Street called police to report the initial forgery on Tuesday afternoon. While officers were investigating, a second pharmacist, this one from Osco Drug on North Reserve Street, called police to report another forgery in progress.

Police headed to Osco and found Chinikaylo waiting by the pharmacy counter. He had two used syringes in his jacket pocket, $212 in cash, two plastic pen tubes cut in half to use as snort tubes, a lighter and keys to a Lincoln, records state.

Prior to Chinikaylo's alleged offenses on Tuesday, a detective had been investigating the man for more than two weeks, and even interviewed him at the downtown station about thefts from another Missoula pharmacy.

Detective Dean Chrestenson identified Chinikaylo after a supervisor at Partnership Health realized that 2,000 pills, all opiates, had been stolen from the pharmacy. An alarm had been tripped four times in August and once in September, records show, and the supervisor determined that a member of the clinic's cleaning service had swiped a security card every time the alarm sounded.

The cleaning service told Chrestenson that the key card belonged to Chinikaylo, a former employee who Chrestenson learned was on felony probation for theft. He'd been hired by the service in June and was fired on Aug. 25. He did not return his security card.

Chrestenson left a business card at Chinikaylo's home, and the following day the man paid a visit to the police station; he admitted stealing six or seven bottles of pills from the clinic's pharmacy. After the interview, Chrestenson told Chinikaylo to see his probation officer and return the key card, which he did. The detective submitted the case to the Missoula County Attorney's Office on Oct. 2.

After his arrest on Tuesday, Chinikaylo again sat down with Chrestenson and admitted that he stole a blank presciption pad from Partnership Health and had been writing prescriptions for the past several months. Chinikaylo said he crushed the pills and either snorted the powder or melted them down so he could inject them into his arms. He showed the detective recent track marks on his arms. He also admitted selling many of the pills, and said the $212 had come from those sales.

According to charging records, the following medications were stolen from Partnership Health: 95 methadone pills, 1,500 hydrocodone pills, 200 oxycodone pills, 130 OxyContin pills and 200 morphine pills.

Chinikaylo appeared Wednesday in Missoula County Justice Court via a live teleconference from jail. He is charged with five counts of burglary, one count of possessing dangerous drugs, two counts of fraudulently obtaining dangerous drugs, one count of distributing dangerous drugs, and one count of possessing property subject to criminal forfeiture (the cash). The charges are all felonies.

Deputy Missoula County Attorney Patricia Bower asked that bail be set at $100,000, and a judge agreed. A public defender said Chinikaylo has lived in Missoula for more than 10 years, has a young child and another on the way. The lawyer asked for a $5,000 bail amount, which the judge denied.

"This defendant is on felony probation and [the county attorney's office] is concerned about his ability to stop himself from using drugs," Bower said. "He is a danger to the community at this time, and to himself."

Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.