Embark with me into the heart of darkness in this gripping episode of Pushing Up Lilies. We're peeling back the layers of a wicked practice that preys on unsuspecting victims — jugging. Join me as we delve into the chilling tales of criminals who stalk their targets before striking, leaving a trail of fear and shattered trust in their wake. Today we explore the sinister art of jugging, a method that goes beyond the ordinary realms of robbery. I'll guide you through the haunting stories of individuals who fell victim to this calculated crime, where criminals meticulously observe and track their prey before orchestrating a theft that goes beyond the physical, leaving psychological scars that linger long after. This episode serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability that exists in our daily lives and the need for vigilance in the face of ever-evolving criminal tactics. *Listener discretion is advised.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly True Crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:30 Gosh, y'all here we are in January.
0:33 Can you believe it?
0:34 I can't believe that the New Year has already started.
0:37 It's crazy from the time that we had Halloween until the end of the year that just flew by, and the stores are already putting their Valentine's Day stuff out.
0:49 It's just crazy.
0:50 We can't even get done with one holiday before they start enticing us to buy stuff for the next.
0:56 I hope everyone's was amazing and safe and you got to see your family and spend time with them.
1:02 We're going to talk this week a little bit about something that's kind of become a fad and it's, I mean, I say a fad, but it's in our area and possibly in your neck of the woods, but it's called jugging.
1:17 I know that I've seen some cases recently here where it's been going on.
1:23 It just blows me away that people have nothing better to do than to stalk people and follow them and steal their money.
1:31 But jugging is basically following someone from a bank to their next location.
1:38 It can be somebody sitting in a parking lot at a check, cashing store or a drive through ATM or a bank branch.
1:49 They're basically waiting for someone to take cash out because they know most people when they leave the bank are going to probably have cash.
1:57 Definitely the drivers, they approach the victims and threaten them with violence or even assault them and, or take their money.
2:07 I know that if y'all are like me, we've seen a lot of TV, and we know how it goes down.
2:15 I look around constantly to see if anybody looks suspicious, not only when I'm at the bank, but when I'm at the grocery store and I'm leaving and walking to my car because you can never be too careful.
2:27 I'm always looking around to see, you know, who might be watching if I see a car that might be following me anywhere.
2:36 I won't, you know, change my route, and go somewhere different or drive past the police department or something like that just to, I guess deter them from following me anymore.
2:49 Not that I'm paranoid, but I've just seen too many things happen and y'all have to, we tend to think what's the worst thing that can happen or what's the worst-case scenario.
3:01 And you just have to watch out for yourself.
3:05 Now, I've noticed, I love the convenience of being able to make a deposit from my phone by taking a picture of a check.
3:15 And I joked with my husband one time I said, did you know you can start making a deposit on your phone with cash?
3:20 And he's like looking at me funny.
3:23 I was going to see how long it would take him to ask me, how do they keep up with what's been deposited and what hasn't?
3:28But then he started laughing.
3:29 So anyway, I thought that was funny but just being able to put money in the bank without going to the bank.
3:36 COVID was weird.
3:37 I'm sure that you will agree with me when you had to wear a mask into the bank, which goes against everything we've ever been taught like you do not do that.
3:49 And so that was weird walking into a bank and everyone's face or mouth being covered.
3:56 And I noticed that this last Halloween there were signs on the bank door that said you couldn't wear a Halloween mask in there.
4:03 I guess they didn't want anybody that looked threatening to come in there with a mask on and end up getting shot because they were afraid that they were going to rob the bank.
4:12 But this is literally a new thing.
4:15 It's not new.
4:16 I mean, I'm sure it's been going on forever, but now it has a name, and it seems to be happening more frequently.
4:24 The people who do this are usually in a vehicle that blends in very well.
4:30 There have been some cases in our area where people have been killed.
4:36 We had one back in June who was assaulted.
4:41 His name is James Dotty.
4:43 He was a longtime resident and civil servant, and he was robbed and knocked to the ground by an assailant.
4:51 This happened on June 15th of 2023 after making a bank withdrawal in seal Texas, Rosy Clinique Goines of Houston.
5:02 She was arrested on a charge of robbery and booked into the Harris County jail and her bail was set at $5000.
5:11 She is accused of being an accomplice of the man who robbed Dottie and the man last I heard still remains at large and that's the scary thing.
5:22 A lot of these people still get away on June 15th.
5:28 Goins followed Dottie into a security service federal credit union in shirts, Texas at 1:30 p.m. and she was watching him make this withdrawal.
5:43 Goins followed him out, got into a gray impala and followed him in his car as he drove away.
5:51 Dottie drove to another business and got out of his car and as Dottie was leaving his vehicle, he was attacked by a male.
6:01 And so like I said, this male is still at large.
6:03 As far as I know, Goins was arrested, the man struck Dottie from behind and he fell to the ground.
6:12 They are seen on security camera footage and remember we talked about security cameras and their importance last week.
6:20 And so they were seen on security camera footage.
6:24 And the assailant took a white envelope containing the money that Dottie had withdrawn.
6:31 Dottie was able to leave the scene in his own vehicle.
6:35 And this was a young guy.
6:36 I want to say he was in his thirties; he was able to leave the scene in his own vehicle.
6:42 And then he began kind of acting a little strangely and fell.
6:47 A week later, his condition worsened.
6:50 He went into a coma and was placed on a ventilator and then he eventually died on July 12th of this year.
6:58 Chances are he had a head injury of some sort that continued to cause him problems until his death.
7:06 I mean, this guy was in the military.
7:10 He served as commander of Camp Parks in Dublin when he was a colonel from 03 to 05.
7:17 This happened just outside, I guess it's a suburb of San Antonio.
7:21 And you know what?
7:22 I lied.
7:22 He wasn't in his thirties.
7:23 He was 61.
7:24 But the picture of him on the internet might be an older picture or else he's just aged very well seriously.
7:33 I guess I just saw that he served for 33 years.
7:35 He joined the Army National Guard when he was 18.
7:39 Yeah, 61 years old.
7:41 And it's so sad that, I mean, I'm curious as to how much money he had on him.
7:47 It probably wasn't a lot, you know, it may not have been more than $100.
7:52 I would just always be cautious of who's watching and who's standing around.
7:57 I mean, even if it's another bank customer, you know, if they can hear the transaction, it's just a little bit scary.
8:04 And this is another, this year, August 2023 a business owner was coming back from a bank when he was hit in the back of the head.
8:13 He saw two masked men wearing gloves and he opened fire whenever his vehicle stopped and he had gotten out, he was at his place of employment.
8:26 One of his employees came out and also fired shots at these men and both men were pronounced dead at Roy's cash and carry, which was the name of the business.
8:39 There was a third suspect, supposedly who fled the scene.
8:44 This is where, you know, they get what they have coming to him in Texas.
8:49 You know, we're allowed to carry weapons and I know they're not in every state, I believe in this case.
8:55 It came in very handy.
8:58 This guy luckily wasn't killed.
9:00 He was able to kill the people who attacked him again.
9:06 Don't know how much money he had, but he left the bank and was followed to work in Florida in July of this year.
9:16 A man was arrested, and another man's body was pulled from the water after attempting to evade arrest, trying to get away and then end up drowning because they were trying to jug someone.
9:35 And I mean, for what, you know, it's just like, get a job.
9:39 This is crazy.
9:41 And this just happened, December 29th.
9:44 Police are searching, and this happened here in my area in Arlington, Texas.
9:50 So not very far from me, police are searching for a man accused of killing a woman in a shopping center parking lot in Arlington.
9:59 Someone who was driving by saw the woman in a physical struggle with someone else.
10:08 The woman went to work after stopping at a local bank and this is where she was attacked.
10:14 But during the struggle, she failed and was hit by the suspect's vehicle as they drove away, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
10:26 This woman was 56.
10:30 She worked at looks like a Chinese restaurant.
10:33 And so this happened again after she'd got back to work after leaving the bank, he also made off the suspect made off with some of her other positions as well.
10:45 I'm not sure what all they took.
10:49 This is absolutely crazy.
10:50 I think I've even when I was going through and saw different events, I've even seen incidents where, you know, people leave their car door open while they're getting gas, while they're on one side of the car pumping gas.
11:03 Someone is digging through their purse or going through the belongings in their car and taking money and stuff out.
11:12 And I'm the worst about that too.
11:14 You know, I'm less way trusting.
11:16 We grew up in a small town.
11:18 I know that even my husband, when we're in North Dakota, they live way out in the middle of the sticks, you know, way out nowhere and they never lock their doors at night.
11:29 I always lock all the doors when I'm there because I'm like, you got to lock your doors.
11:33 I mean, it's 2024.
11:35 Now we have to take care of ourselves and watch out for all the bad people because they're there even in the small towns.
11:41 And we tend to forget that there was another incident in February of this last year, February 2023 a woman was robbed after she made a bank withdrawal from a Bank of America ATM in Houston, Nong Trong was 44 and she was followed over 23 miles to a shopping center where she was robbed this car that saw her withdraw the money actually followed her to the shopping center.
12:13 She was a single mother of three.
12:18 Her kids were 1315 and 20.
12:21 She was body slammed and robbed of $4300.
12:27 The body slam caused left leg paralysis.
12:31 The attack damaged her spinal cord and left her paralyzed, unable to walk or use the bathroom by herself.
12:40 The suspect grabbed her, took an envelope, and threw her belongings on the ground.
12:46 He realized that the envelope he had didn't contain money.
12:50 He ran back, body slammed her and took another envelope that did contain cash.
12:58 $4300 had been withdrawn so that she could take a trip with her family.
13:06 And so that's the reason that she had such a large amount of money.
13:09 But in most of these cases, they don't disclose how much was taken.
13:15 And now, like I was saying, the origin of the term jugging is a little unclear, but it came into use over a decade ago when thieves stole women's purses as they pumped gas.
13:25 See, that's what I was telling you about.
13:28 You know, you can see their feet hanging out people's windows because they're climbing in open windows trying to get stuff out of people's purses.
13:34 It's the newest crime trend.
13:37 It's really sad that people can't like, get a job… And they have to try to take everyone else's money.
13:43 You know, some of us are going to put up a fight and some of us are going to basically throw the money at him and we always think we would do that.
13:50 You know, we're always like, if I get robbed, man, I just give him everything, just give him my purse.
13:54 But in the moment like you don't know how you're going to respond.
13:58 I think you automatically get a little bit defensive and protective who knows what you would really do in the moment.
14:05 You know, if that happened because they can be very aggressive and obviously can result in your death.
14:14 They say to be aware of vehicles that loiter in or near a bank parking lot or any vehicle that appears to just be sitting there, maybe trying to make it look like they're doing one thing when they're really just watching people who leave, be mindful of vehicles that appear to be following you.
14:36 We talked about that already.
14:38 Ways to avoid being victimized… Again are, just be aware of your surroundings always, which I don't know, I just think you can never be too careful.
14:48 I know that I was coming out of a store one time I had my trunk popped up to put some stuff in it.
14:55 And a man started running towards me and I didn't see him, but a lady pulled up beside me and rolled her window down and she said, do you know that man?
15:03 And I said, what man?
15:04 She said, the man that was running towards you and I said, I didn't see him.
15:07 And she said, girl, I think he was going to put you in your trunk and drive away in your car.
15:11 She said he was headed directly for you, and it scared me to death.
15:16 And so she offered to stay in her car beside mine until I got it loaded up and left.
15:22 And there had been several instances in that same parking lot that were reported where someone had attempted to kidnap people.
15:30 It's just so scary, especially, you know, women that are by themselves or, you know, teenagers, it's just horrifying to think that someone would do that.
15:40 So be aware of your surroundings at all times don't leave cash inside your vehicles.
15:46 Sometimes they're going to break into it whether there's cash in there or not.
15:49 But if there's cash, you know, then it's going to come up missing.
15:52 If that happens, change the route you take after leaving the bank.
15:56 If you think you might be followed. Again, you know, don't be paranoid about it.
16:02 But if you think you might be being followed, then just don't go straight home because again, you go home, you put yourself even more at risk because then they know where you live, and they know you have cash and that's their goal and these people don't care what kind of trouble they get into.
16:20 Obviously, they are just out for one thing when you carry cash and credit and debit cards and checks, which believe it or not, some people do still write checks, be discreet and don't like to carry them out in the open.
16:36 Like if you come out of the bank, put the money in your purse instead of carrying the white envelope in your hand where it's visible by people and obvious to them that you made a withdrawal because some people are the bank to make a deposit, right?
16:51
But you can still be robbed after that because someone would think that you took money out and that you had cash.
16:58 And of course, you know, one of the most important things in all of this is if you truly do believe that you're being followed, call 911 and let the police know that you think someone's following you from the bank.
17:12 I know we always again.
17:14 Oh no, that's ridiculous.
17:15 I'll be made fun of. What if they weren't following me? But what if they were?
17:19 And that's the kind of stuff you have to think about because again, these are not good people, and their intentions are not good.
17:28 I mean, you could drive to the police station.
17:30 No one's going to make fun of you.
17:32 If you feel like this is happening to you, it's very important to take action and not pretend that it can't happen to you because you could be injured or killed, and your life is precious and you definitely want to protect yourself.
17:50 I know in Dallas recently there were four men between the ages of 19 and 26 who were busted for jugging offenses in the Dallas area.
18:01 Now they were charged with organized crime, which will be a federal case.
18:06 Very interesting.
18:08 Police recovered bank bags, cash guns, drugs and personal possessions taken from their victims.
18:17 Again, be vigilant and pay attention and just last year y'all.
18:23 And then this article I think was written, well, it was written in August of 2023.
18:28 In 2022 there were 223 jugging robberies in the city of Dallas.
18:38 In August of 2023 there were already 100 and 43 incidents and some of these people traveled to Dallas as far away as Houston to steal money.
18:54 And, I mean, that's strange.
18:56 I didn't realize it was organized crime.
18:58 It's like a federal offense because they obviously planned it because there were four of them.
19:04 Very interesting.
19:06 This is kind of the new thing.
19:08 And I mean, even though banks have surveillance cameras, many of these people are still at large.
19:14 That really doesn't always help to catch them and who knows, they may not be in their car nine times out of 10.
19:20 Again, these aren't good people.
19:21 They're probably in a stolen vehicle.
19:24 I like to talk about true crime and what's happening in the world and different murders and incidences that have happened in the past.
19:32 But also, I like to use this to educate, and I found this interesting because I'd never heard of jugging.
19:39 I've always kind of been one to watch my surroundings all the time.
19:44 It's scary that this could happen.
19:45 I wanted to kind of use this opportunity to educate about it a little bit since it was new to me as well.
19:53 I hope that everyone is having good weather.
19:55 I know that they had some ice in North Dakota after we got home.
19:59 Yeah, people in Texas can't drive on ice.
20:02 We struggle, we struggle a lot.
20:05 Sometimes even in the rain around here to drive without getting into an accident.
20:10 I hope everyone welcomed in the New Year safely.
20:14 We're going to make 2024 the best ever, super excited about some new things that we have going on here.
20:22 We'll be opening our murder merchandise store soon so that you can order things online from us.
20:29 And then we will also have a media kit online so that you can sign up to meet with me on the air and talk about cases, maybe that we've worked together or even cases in your area that you've worked or heard of or been a part of or maybe even family members of yours have been involved in.
20:48 You would have the opportunity to go online and choose a time and then we would be able to meet up virtually online and talk about the case and then you could be a guest on the podcast.
21:01 Very exciting things again.
21:04 Thank you all so much for being a part of this podcast.
21:09 I appreciate that very much and I appreciate you sharing it.
21:13 And I know when I was in Nashville recently, I shared it with some people when I was eating dinner by myself, and I got like five new followers like while I was sitting there next to them.
21:24 They actually followed.
21:26 So, so grateful for that.
21:28 I know everyone loves True Crime.
21:30 Have a great, great week and we look forward to visiting with you next week and giving you some great new stories.
21:39 Thank you so much for joining me today on pushing up Lilies.
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21:53 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.