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Richard Lawrence, 56, of Philadelphia, was arrested and charged with five counts of robbery and related offenses on Tuesday, April 19, Abingdon Township police said.
Lawrence walked into the TD Bank on Moreland Road in Willow Grove while dressed in Muslim garb and with his face hidden, demanding that the teller give him "all the 50's and 100's" before fleeing the scene on Saturday, April 2, police said.
He apparently fled towards Philadelphia through Cheltenham Township. Police say they were able to link the license plate of the suspect's getaway car to Lawrence.
The vehicle was later found in Philadelphia, and a couple of days after that, Lawrence reported to the Philadelphia Police Department that his car had been stolen, they said.
While investigating the bank robbery, detectives found similarities to several other recent robberies of businesses in the region, they said.
Rite Aid at 8001 Roosevelt Blvd. in Philadelphia, Walgreens at 7001 Frankford Ave. in Philadelphia, CVS at 890 Welsh Rd. in Horsham, and Rite Aid at 1321 Easton Rd. in the Roslyn section of Abington Township were all robbed in a similar fashion in March, police said.
These four robberies were all committed by the same suspect, who either threatened employees with a box cutter or implied that he had a weapon and demanded money from the safe, according to police.
Detectives say evidence linked the TD Bank robbery to the four other robberies. They also learned that Lawrence apparently lied about his car being stolen and was actually the suspect in the robberies, they said.
While detectives were in the process of obtaining an arrest warrant for Lawrence on Saturday, April 9, a suspect walked into the TD Bank on Cheltenham Avenue in Cheltenham Township and demanded money from a teller, police said.
That suspect as confirmed to be Lawrence, when responding officers nabbed him as he was fleeing the scene, they said.
Bail was set at $10,000 and he was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
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