SPRING – A ride home from the Galleria Mall on Black Friday ended with thousands of dollars worth of gifts stolen from the back of a family’s S.U.V., according to one of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous.
He suspects he was followed from valet parking at the Galleria to Spring on Friday.
“We had gone to some higher-end luxury stores and bought several thousand dollars of goods,” the man said. “The back window was completely smashed. All the bags were stolen.”
Surveillance video from a nearby residence shows the moment he pulled up to drop off a relative. Roughly 40 seconds later, a sedan can be seen following the man’s S.U.V.
“I was just going to go inside and say goodbye and then I came out 15 minutes later,” he said, finding his back window had been broken and the shopping bags were nowhere in sight.
He filed a report with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office because the alleged crime didn’t take place in Houston. That’s a key detail as police try to crack down on crime during the holiday shopping period. The push to do so included a tour of the Galleria on Black Friday by Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
KPRC2 has reported similar jugging incidents, including a woman who said the same thing happened to her in September — including parking in the valet section.
“I ran inside my house for three minutes, I came back outside and got in my car because I was leaving again, and as soon as I got in my car, they busted out my window,” she said in Sept, accusing the person who shattered her window of stealing two purses she purchased, collectively valued at over $3,000.
The victim of the alleged jugging from Black Friday said he heard of another similar story when he returned to the Galleria to speak to the manager of a store from which he’d purchased his stolen items.
“The first thing he asked me was did you valet your car,” he said.