Flock camera technology helped Pearland police track two alleged jugging suspects near Baybrook Mall and along I-45 on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Charles Randle and Crystal Lewis, both of Houston, were arrested and charged with burglary of a motor vehicle as part of an alleged jugging scheme, a third-degree felony, according to the Pearland Police Department. Jugging is a crime in which suspects watch people make bank transactions, then follow them and break into their vehicles.
The accounts of the crime differ slightly between sources. KGTX 7 reported that officers responded around 1:24 p.m. to a business in the 2500 block of Pearland Parkway after a woman said her vehicle had been burglarized. The victim told police she had visited a bank in Houston before driving to the Pearland business.
FOX 26 Houston reported a more detailed account from the victim. She said the suspects followed her from the bank to her home and then to a Pearland restaurant, where they smashed her passenger window and stole her passport. She estimated the break-in took less than a minute.
Both accounts agree on one detail: the victim noticed a suspicious woman walking in and out of the bank while she was making a deposit.
The arrest comes as League City voters prepare to decide Proposition A on Nov. 3, which asks whether the city's police department should continue using the same type of automated license plate readers. League City manages 55 Flock cameras and has access to 84 total within its jurisdiction through a $175,000 annual contract, according to the League City Police Department. If voters reject the measure, the city council has resolved to remove all Flock cameras within 72 hours of the election.
Flock cameras led police to suspects
Pearland police crime analyst Lyndall Baker told FOX 26 that a Flock license plate reader captured the suspect vehicle, a gray Nissan Pathfinder with a California temporary tag, near Baybrook Mall after the break-in.
Pearland detectives located the Nissan traveling northbound on I-45 and followed it to a bank near Edgebrook Drive in Houston. While under surveillance, investigators watched the Nissan follow a Dodge Ram from that bank to another parking lot near Harrisburg Boulevard. Police said a man exited the Nissan, smashed the Dodge Ram's window and began searching the truck while its driver was inside the bank.
Officers from the Pearland Crime Reduction Unit, the Houston Police Department and Harris County Precinct 2 Constable's Office then conducted a vehicle takedown and arrested Randle and Lewis.
"Detectives witnessed a suspect get out of the vehicle and break into the other victim's truck," Baker told FOX 26.
Suspects may be part of larger group
Charges were filed in both Brazoria County and Harris County. Bond was set at $200,000 in Brazoria County and $15,000 in Harris County, according to FOX 26.
Pearland Police Public Information Officer Chad Rogers told FOX 26 that investigators believe Randle and Lewis are connected to a larger group committing similar crimes across the Houston area. Court records show Randle has previously been arrested on allegations of theft, vehicle burglary and engaging in organized criminal activity, FOX 26 reported.
Rogers said Pearland police have seen an increase in jugging incidents. He credited Flock cameras with the quick arrest.
"It's very possible they never would've been caught," Rogers told FOX 26.
Pearland police advise residents to watch for vehicles that appear to follow them from a bank and to call police or drive directly to a police station if they believe they are being followed.
