The town of Mineral Wells is slowly healing after being hit by an EF‑3 tornado on Tuesday evening.

“We know a lot of impacted families, whether it was their home or their workplace, and Woody’s has always been a special place to them. I just want them to know that they have a special place with us, and we want to do whatever we can to help,” said Taylor Oliver, general manager of Woody’s Bar and Grill.

Woody’s has been a staple in the community. On Saturday, instead of celebrating its 75‑year anniversary, the restaurant hosted a relief fundraiser.

“We’re going to put any profit that we make today towards that,” said Oliver.

Storm caused widespread property damage

The storm left a path of destruction. The National Weather Service says winds reached 145 miles per hour, destroying and damaging homes and businesses.

“We have 140 properties that have been impacted, with 82 of those properties being a residence,” said Mineral Wells Mayor Regan Johnson.

With several commercial buildings damaged, the city says about 500 employees were affected. Some have already returned to work, and officials emphasized that despite the destruction, no lives were lost.

“I mean, that much damage, that many buildings and structures gone, and no fatalities, I mean,” said Oliver.

Residents recount moments the tornado hit

Christopher Hester and Rebecca Scott were home when the tornado came through.

“When everything happened, we were standing right there… This is the first part that we saw come up, and you can see, like the wood being lifted in the nails we immediately ducked down, grabbed the dog and then ran to right here,” said Scott.

The couple, along with many others who lost everything, have been given temporary housing at no cost for now.

Community support fuels recovery efforts

The community has rallied to support those impacted, and many say there’s no doubt Mineral Wells will come back stronger than before.

“Mineral Wells people are so resilient, we’re going to fight this, of course we’re going to win this, of cour—”

CEDAR PARK, Texas – Cedar Park police are warning residents to be vigilant after Wells Fargo bank employees alerted them to a possible jugging situation Thursday morning.

“Jugging” is a crime in which a suspect waits for someone to withdraw money from a bank or ATM, then follows the person to steal the cash. The offense became a felony in Texas last September.

The backstory:

“It’s a fairly common phenomenon. We deal with it several times a year, ranging anywhere from $500 to we had one incident a few years ago with a $100,000 loss,” said Cpl. Dan Kitchens, Cedar Park Police Department.

On Thursday, April 30, bank staff described suspicious behavior from a group of men who were watching customers and appeared to be casing the location.

“Once we got in the area, the vehicle that the suspects were occupying went mobile, and we were able to follow it into another bank, Bank of America,” Kitchens said.

Kitchens said when the suspects noticed his police cruiser, they took off, leading officers on a high-speed chase. The pursuit went through the Riviera neighborhood, where two men jumped from a moving car.

Officers eventually caught the pair after a brief foot chase. They were identified as Gabriel Lara and Nicholas Barrientos.

Meanwhile, the driver continued but did not get far.

“They crashed on the 183 to 45 flyover when it was starting to rain really heavily,” Kitchens said.

The driver, Ruben Barrientos, was taken into custody at the crash site.

All three men are from Waco.

“We did interview them after the pursuit and the driver did say they came down to the area to conduct jugging-type robberies or burglaries,” Kitchens said.

They are only facing charges for evading arrest because police intercepted the suspects before any jugging incidents were committed.

“We do believe that they were involved in a jugging last Friday. We didn’t have a reported victim yet, but that was not in Cedar Park, that was in Austin,” Kitchens said.

Detectives have also since connected the trio to an active case out of Oklahoma, in which a victim was followed to a place of worship and approximately $25,000 was stolen.

Police remind residents to be aware of their surroundings, not to leave cash inside vehicles and to call 911 if they believe they are being followed.