Two Bristol Township men have been charged following a January strong-arm robbery.
Police said they were called around 12:20 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16. A 61-year-old woman told investigators that that she was visiting a friend – identified as Nicholas Obenschain, 30, of Levittown – who called for her to stop by a second-floor unit in the Brittany Springs Apartments on Bristol-Oxford Valley Road. As she left the apartment, she was reportedly attacked on the ground-floor vestibule.
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The woman said a man jumped out near the exit and punched her in the face. He shoved her to the ground, slammed his body onto her, and yelled for her money, police said.
The woman told the attacker she had $4 in her front pocket, but the robber ended up ripping her wallet from her pants before fleeting, police said.
In court papers, investigators wrote that the woman was shaken as she spoke with them and had fresh scrapes on her face and neck.
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Obenschain, who lived and worked in the apartment complex, told investigators he ended up giving the woman $200 moments before she left the apartment and was attacked. He then went to Wawa with another employee and met with Zachary Runion, 20, who has recent addresses in Falls Township and Gouldsboro,Wayne County.
Video from the Wawa showed Obenschain and Runion, who also went by Zachary Edmiston, met in the Wawa parking lot and make an “exchange.” The apartment complex employee who drive Obenschain to the Wawa ended up going in the store to make a purchase while the two men met outside, police wrote in court papers.
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During a second interview with police, Obenschain reportedly said Runion attacked the woman and came up to his second-floor apartment after the robbery out of breath.
Runion was arrested in early March on charges of robbery, conspiracy, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, and simple assault. He was arraigned by Senior District Judge Robert Roth and jailed on 10 percent of $50,000 bail. In addition, he is facing an unrelated possession of a controlled substance case from December out of Perkasie Borough.
Obenschain was charged in mid-March with permitting violation of title of robbery, robbery, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, and simple assault. He was arraigned before Senior District Judge Robert Roth and released on $50,000 unsecured bail.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
