Suspected wedding crasher charged with second theft

The Bridgeport man charged with crashing a wedding party in Montgomery County and stealing thousands of dollars worth of wedding gifts has been charged with theft from another reception.

Joseph Patrick Franzone Jr., 35, was arraigned in District Court on Wednesday on one charge of theft by unlawful taking and one charge of receiving stolen property.

On June 22, Upper Providence police received a report that an unknown man had walked into a reception at the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve and taken a wedding cake card box that contained about $9,000 in cash and checks given to the newlyweds as gifts, authorities said Wednesday.

Police did not make an arrest in that case until after a second wedding-party theft occurred July 7, when from $3,000 to $5,000 in gifts were stolen from a reception at the William Penn Inn in Gwynedd.

After Franzone's photo appeared with news reports of the July arrest, a witness to the theft at RiverCrest identified him as the man he saw in the reception area. Other witnesses at that reception also identified Franzone through photos.

Franzone has been in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $150,000 bail after pleading not guilty in the Gwynedd case, He was arraigned Wednesday on the new charges, with bail set at $100,000, and returned to the county prison, Assistant District Attorney Lindsay O'Brien said.

Franzone is a possible suspect in a third wedding-party theft, O'Brien said. None of the affected newlyweds knew him, authorities say.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 31 before District Judge Walter Gadzicki Jr.