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.