Cops: Man robbed funeral mourner, churches

A man robbed a cell phone Tuesday from a mourner at a funeral Mass in Franklin Square who had earlier given him $10, police said.

Jayson Bianco, 37, whose address is unknown, was charged with petty larceny and two counts of third-degree burglary. He is suspected of breaking into poor boxes at two churches, police said.

A woman and her children were attending a funeral Mass at St. Catherine of Sienna Church on New Hyde Park Road when Bianco removed the woman's cellphone from her pocketbook, which she had placed on a pew, police said. Earlier, she had given the man $10 when he asked for money, police said.

A man at the church noticed the theft and called authorities, police said.

Bianco was also charged with stealing an undetermined amount of cash from two of St. Catherine's poor boxes on Friday, police said, and with removing three poor boxes from St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hempstead on May 29.

Bianco was to be arraigned Wednesday in First District Court, Hempstead.