Local News
TOWN OF TONAWANDA: 'Zip-Tie' bandit busted outside jewelry store
The reign of fear from the man dubbed by cops from Amherst to the Falls as the “Zip-Tie Bandit” ended Tuesday afternoon when Town of Tonawanda police took him into custody as he walked out of a jewelry store armed with an assault rifle.
Officers were responding to a call of a “suspicious vehicle” at the rear of the store in the 3700 block of Delaware Avenue in the town.
They nabbed Arthur Swain as he was walking out of the business packing a loaded AK-47 rifle. Moments later, they arrested Swain’s get-away driver, Joshua Green, just down the street.
The arrests end a hold-up spree stretching back to early February. Swain, 21, and Green, 20, both of 166 Roesch Ave., Buffalo, are tied to no less than six armed robberies.
In addition to Tuesday’s Town of Tonawanda heist, the pair are tied to two hold-ups in Buffalo and Amherst, one in Kenmore and one in the Falls. In each case Swain tied up the employees in the stores he hit with zip-ties.
Falls detectives have spoken to Swain and Green and said, late Tuesday night the pair had confessed to their role in the robbery of the Universal Wireless store in the 3000 block of Pine Avenue on Feb. 9.
A video surveillance camera at the wireless store captured an image of Swain as he entered the business and confronted three female employees at gunpoint.
“The witnesses said they could see what looked like a black gun in his hand,” Detective Mark Jaroszewski said. “He asked, ‘Where’s Dave?’ and the employees said, ‘Who is Dave?’ Then the suspect said, ‘(Dave) knows what this is about.’ ”
During the hold-up of the Falls business, Swain was dressed entirely in black and wearing what looked like it might be a bullet-proof vest.
Swain is linked to the armed hold-up of a pizzeria in Kenmore just hours before the Pine Avenue robbery. He is the prime suspect in the robbery of a college bookstore in Amherst on two separate occasions.
No information was available on the Buffalo robberies linked to Swain and Green.
Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer at 282-2311, ext. 2252.
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