Couple Arrested, Charged in 2 Armed Robbery Incidents

A Falls Township couple accused of knifepoint and gunpoint robberies are behind bars and facing serious charges.

Mario Bianchi, 35, and his fiance Katherine Swaim, 27, both of Makefield Road, were arrested on Monday in connection with two robberies that police allege they were involved in.

According to a criminal complaint, Falls officers responded on Sunday to the Wells Fargo Bank branch on Trenton Road in Fairless Hills for reports of an attempted robbery just minutes after midnight.

The victim told police she was approached by a female suspect from behind and held up at gunpoint as she was trying to withdraw money. She told the suspect she had no money and managed to flee across the street to the Puss N Boots Tavern, police said.

A man was seen by the fleeing victim rummaging through the her car, court documents state.

Follow Levittown Patch on Facebook.

About 20 hours later, police responded to an armed robbery at the Laundry Depot on West Trenton Avenue in the Morrisville section of Falls.

Arriving patrol officers were told by the victim that she was placing her laundry bag inside her Mazada when a man approached her and asked for a cigarette. When the victim said she did not have cigarettes, the male said, “Well, we are going to need your keys,” according to a criminal complaint.

The victim told police she then noticed a female was holding a knife to her back. At that point, the victim pleaded with the duo to take her cash, not her keys, court documents show. She even handed over $120.

The male suspect is alleged to have kept insisting that the victim turn over her keys, the female victim told police said. At one point, police said, he even asked her to drive them.

The victim was eventually able to escape unharmed into the laundromat.

A police detective responded to the scene and was able to recover surveillance footage from the business. Court documents report the victim was able to identify the couple who robbed her.

Days later, the investigating detective spotted a white male matching the suspect from the previous incidents pacing without direction outside the Giant Food Store in Morrisville Borough. He was even wearing clothes identical to those of the man seen in the surveillance video, according to the affidavit.

Police took the man - later identified as Bianchi - to the Falls police station where he agreed to talk.

During an interview with investigators, Bianchi admitted to being the man in the surveillance footage. He identified his accomplice as his fiance.

Police then talked with Swaim; she admitted the couple's involvement in both Falls Township incidents, police said.

The twosome were charged with several counts of robbery with threat of immediate serious injury, theft by unlawful taking, simple assault, terroristic threats and several other related offenses, according to court dockets.

Both were sent to county jail in lieu of 10 percent of $300,000 by District Justice Joseph Falcone.

The couple could be behind a vehicle theft and knifepoint robbery that happened Friday night at a laundromat in the 1600 block of Haines Road in Bristol Township, the Bucks County Courier Times reports.

A police official told the paper they will investigate to see if their is a connection.

Related:

• Car Stolen After Robbery at Haines Road Laundromat