CBS AUSTIN – After years of rising jugging attacks in Austin, Texas bill heads to full senate for vote
It’s a crime that’s become more organized, more frequent, and more personal for families across Texas. It’s called “jugging,” and now, a new bill is moving through the Texas Legislature to finally call it what it is.
On Tuesday, House Bill 1902, which would create a specific criminal charge for jugging, passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. It now heads to the full Senate for a final vote.
“Members, this crime is happening in all of our communities,” said Rep. David Cook (R–Mansfield), the bill’s author.
“This is a crime that’s becoming more and more common and needs to have its own offense, and that’s what we’re here for today.”
Jugging involves suspects surveilling victims as they leave banks, stores, or financial institutions, then following them, often in rented cars, to rob them of money or valuables. The attack can happen in a parking lot, a driveway, or even at someone’s front door.
In a now-viral 2022 case out of Houston, a woman was left paralyzed after being jugged outside a business.
Nearly a year ago, in June 2024, it happened to Hannah, a North Austin business owner who was six months pregnant at the time.
“I got pulled out of the car, and at that point he ripped something out of my hands, our bank bag was gone,” she said.
“He got in the car and there were two other men in the car,” said Hannah, “He got in the back seat and they drove away.”
The attack happened outside a Chase Bank on Burnet Road. Surveillance video shows Hannah entering her vehicle when a man rushes her, yanks open her door, and assaults her in broad daylight.
She was left bruised and shaken, but her fear was for more than just herself.
“It was traumatic. It still affects me,” she said in an interview with CBS Austin on Tuesday.
“Even when I put my baby in the car seat, I’m always watching around my back.”
At the time, Hannah and her husband were told the car had been rented, likely out of Houston, a common juggling tactic. Despite providing evidence, the case went nowhere.
“We didn’t hear anything from the detective, nothing from the police,” she said.
“Then on Thanksgiving Day, we got an email that said, ‘We don’t have any evidence — we’re going to drop the case.’”
That’s something Rep. Cook hopes HB 1902 can help prevent.
Right now, juggling isn’t named in Texas law. That makes it harder for law enforcement to charge suspects, often relying on broader offenses like theft, robbery, or burglary.
“Not only is it helping prosecutors and the charges that they’re filing against these organized criminals, but it’s also helping the police officers from a public safety standpoint,” Cook said during a committee hearing.
The bill would make juggling a state jail felony, enhance penalties to a third-degree felony if the suspect also breaks into a vehicle, and elevate charges to a first-degree felony if the incident includes robbery.
Austin Police robbery detective John Nelson testified that juggling is strategic and increasing.
“I’ve been texted multiple times about it happening right now in Austin just while I’ve been here,” Nelson said Tuesday.
He added that in Austin, “90% of the time, the cars used are rentals often out of Houston.”
According to APD data, there have been nearly 140 jugging investigations in Austin since May 2024, with nearly $300,000 stolen.
Hannah now has an 8-month-old son, and her case remains unsolved, but the trauma lingers.
“This is going to be made its own crime, that should have already been done,” she said.
House Bill 1902 is expected to go before the full Texas Senate later this week. If passed, it will head to the governor’s desk for a signature and could become law by September 1st.
