Jugging suspects caught in Pearland

Good evening and welcome to the news feed. I'm Caroline Collins. We have a lot to get to tonight, including a jugging incident that we have been following and it's impacting people who live in Pearland. There was a recent case where Charles Randall and Crystal Lewis were both arrested and charged in Pearland and investigators believe that they may be a part of a larger group committing similar crimes. Fox 26's Jillian Hartman spoke with Pearland police about how they were able to track down those two suspects. Jillian. Yeah, so police tell me that they're me that the suspects followed a victim from a bank in the Houston area to her home and then to a restaurant in Pearland. And while she was inside having lunch, they say that the two suspects actually broke into her vehicle in the parking lot, stole her passport and then took off. So this actually happened last week on October 14th. Here's some video we wanna show you. So police were called to the scene and witnesses gave them a description of the suspect's vehicle, a gray Nissan Pathfinder. Authorities say that information helped investigators track the SUV near the Bay Brook Mall. The suspects actually switched license plates to try to avoid getting caught, but authorities were able to locate the SUV at another bank in Houston, targeting a second victim just hours later. Investigators say the suspects followed that victim from the bank to another location where they broke into the victim's truck. Authorities then arrested Charles Randall and Crystal Lewis. Pearland Police explained how investigators caught the suspects within hours and shared some warning signs to watch out for when people go to the bank. Shortly after the crime was committed here in Pearland, we saw that it was captured on one of the Flock cameras over at the Baybrook Mall area. Followed it to another bank off of Edgewood in Houston. While they were there, they coordinated with the Houston Police Department and Harris County Precinct Two continued the surveillance. at the bank and then continued the rolling surveillance once that suspect vehicle picked up on another victim. They then followed another victim from the bank to another bank off of Harrisburg. Detectives on view or witnessed a suspect get out of the vehicle and break into that other victim's truck. Do you believe you would have been able to catch the suspects this quickly if you didn't have license plate readers? No, I think the utilization of these LPR tools helped us find these people in a really quick amount of time and it's very possible they never would have been caught. We believe that this group is associated with a much larger group that are committing these same type of crimes in the Houston area and Pearland. Do you believe there's been an uptick in these jugging incidents in the area and what's your advice to people to prevent a situation like this? Yeah, we're seeing more and more of these jugging incidents in the area. It seems like you can just check the news and see that it's happening. I know occurring in our city. What I would tell the public is always be aware of your surroundings, especially if you're going to the bank. If you see something suspicious, call your local law enforcement department. And it's really important when you're driving to and from locations, be aware if that vehicle that was parked next to you at the bank is the same vehicle that's following you throughout these locations that you may be being followed. And to notify us immediately or drive straight to a police department and contact us. So Julian, do the suspects in this case have prior arrest records? So I did look into that. So according to court records, actually, Randall had been arrested before for theft, burglary of vehicles, and engaging in organized criminal activity. So in this case, Randall and Lewis were charged with jugging and committing burglary of a motor vehicle, which is actually a third-degree felony. So we learned that the bond was set for both of them at $15,000 in Harris County and $200,000 in Brazoria County. Reporting live, I'm Jillian Hartman, Fox 26 News. Thank you.