CYPRESS, Texas (KTRK) — A man wanted for tailing and robbing multiple bank customers was captured Thursday after targeting an 84-year-old man.
Andy Helms, a retired Pasadena municipal court judge, told Eyewitness News he had just withdrawn $600 from the Chase on North Eldridge Parkway at Louetta.
As he was walking into his Cypress home Thursday afternoon, he said the suspect hit him on his head from behind, knocking him to the ground and breaking his hip.
“He pushed me to the ground, grabbed the stuff out of my hand, and ran back across the yard to his car,” Helms said.
“I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it,” Helms’ wife, Beverly, said.
The suspect, who sources have identified as 18-year-old Michael Booker, fled the scene in a white Volkswagen and was soon pursued by Harris County sheriff’s deputies and DPS troopers.
Carlos Rodas said the suspect slammed into the back of his SUV at the corner of Airline and Burress, 22 miles away from the scene of the robbery.
“Cops just showed up out of nowhere, asking me where the guy went. I told them where he ran at ’cause I saw when he got out of the car,” Rodas said.
A manhunt ensued but ended in the suspect’s capture.
At the time of Thursday’s robbery, records show Booker already had two open warrants for robbing other bank customers.
Court documents say he followed a 70-year-old woman from a Gulfgate Bank of America on June 11 and took $380 from her.
On June 27, he was accused of following a man to a gas station from a Cypress Wells Fargo. A charging document alleges he distracted the man while an accomplice took $1,600 from the victim’s car.
Jugging, which is how police refer to the act of following someone from the bank in order to rob them, became a felony in Texas this week.
“I haven’t heard of it,” said Helms. “They’ve been telling me this afternoon that that’s not uncommon, that they call it jugging.”
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