A Butler County man and fugitive serial bank robber was captured Wednesday in Crawford County, six weeks after he walked away from a halfway house in Pittsburgh, authorities said.

Officers on a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force tracked Walter C. Tribble, 42, of Cherry Township to a house in Guys Mills, where they arrested him without incident.

Tribble, who was on parole for robbing three Butler County banks at gunpoint in 2008 and 2009 when he went on the lam Dec. 5, is being held in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown.

His arraignment on a charge of escape is pending in federal court in Pittsburgh.

Tribble, in that same courthouse in January 2010, was sentenced to serve nine years in federal prison followed by five years of probation for three counts of armed bank robbery.

He was sentenced after pleading guilty to sticking up the trio of banks during a two-week period.

He robbed the National City Bank branch on Center Avenue in Butler on Dec. 22, 2008; the Citizens Bank branch at Giant Eagle, Clearview Mall in Center Township on Dec. 31, 2008; and the NexTier Bank on Main Street in Slippery Rock on Jan. 5, 2009.

Investigators said Tribble made off with more than $5,000 in those heists.

Tribble was captured at a hotel in Trumbull County, Ohio, on Jan. 6, 2009, a day after he allegedly robbed the NexTier Bank in Slippery Rock.

Police tracked down the prolific bandit after his brother saw a television news broadcast about the NexTier robbery and recognized the getaway car as the one driven by the defendant.

The brother passed on that information to police.

It was not immediately known how long Tribble had been living at the Pittsburgh halfway house on parole for the robberies.

“He was placed on escape status as soon as he walked away,” said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Jon Gallagher, “and we began looking for him at once.”

Gallagher said “information was developed” that led officers to the house in Guys Mills. He said an “associate” of Tribble lived there.

Seven U.S. marshals officers converged on the home about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and quickly had the fugitive in handcuffs. Gallagher said it appeared that Tribble had been sleeping.

Authorities said no charges are expected to be filed against the home’s occupants.

Tribble made no statement to marshals as he was taken away and later driven to the federal lockup in Youngstown.