Weslaco police have arrested a 37-year-old man they say threatened to shoot an Uber driver earlier this month before stealing the man’s vehicle.
Authorities booked Sergio Rodriguez Vargas, a Weslaco resident, into the Hidalgo County jail on Tuesday on a charge of robbery.
The investigation that eventually led to Rodriguez began when the Uber driver called police on Feb. 7 at about 5:09 a.m. to report he was robbed at the Trails End RV Park at 2001 S. Texas Blvd.
The driver told the responding officer that an unknown man, later identified as Rodriguez, took his blue 2016 Ford Escape by force by threatening to shoot him.
The Uber driver had been contacted through the app by a client who gave him the gate code to the park, but when the man arrived, the gate code did not work.
After he called the client, who agreed to come meet him at the gate, the driver just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he encountered Rodriguez, according to police.
“(He) says it is at this time that he hears the back-driver side door open and as he turns (and sees) an unknown male standing in the door opening saying ‘Oh my bad,” a probable cause affidavit stated.
The driver said the man closed the door, but then re-opened it and offered him $10 to give him a ride, police said.
“(He) says that he tells the unknown male ‘No’ as he had already a client, which he knew was coming to the gate. (He) says the unknown male then closes the back-driver side door and then opens his driver side door telling him that he was going to take his car since he will not give him a ride,” the affidavit stated.
The driver told police the man then tried to pull him out of the driver’s seat so he pulled the keys out of the ignition, turned the car off and tried to fight Rodriguez, who was trying to take his keys, police said.
“Then (he) says the unknown male reaches towards his waistline and is now telling him ‘Give me the keys or I am going to shoot you.’ After hearing this and believing he would be shot (he) says he gives up the keys and steps out of the vehicle,” the affidavit stated.
Before Rodriguez drove off going south on Texas Boulevard, the Uber driver was able to take his phone off its car mount, police said.
And during the entire incident, the driver had been on a video chat with his wife, who was able to take a screenshot of the suspect, police said.
However, police couldn’t immediately locate the man’s vehicle.
Two days later, at about 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office notified Weslaco police they had found the stolen car near the 8400 block of North Dillon Road in Donna and police responded and spoke to the homeowner, who had reported the vehicle as suspicious.
The homeowner told police the car was parked near his property by a canal bank and had been there since Feb. 7, but he didn’t immediately think it was suspicious because he thought one of his neighbors had a party and that a guest who had too much to drink had left it behind.
But when no one retrieved the vehicle, the homeowner said he decided to call authorities.
“(He) then says that he never saw anyone in or near the vehicle the entire time it had been there,” the affidavit stated.
As police are speaking with the homeowner, they say information developed that Rodriguez was a suspect and a patrol sergeant on scene remembers he has an acquaintance in the area who is related to Rodriguez and had been allegedly robbed by him on Feb. 7, the same day the Uber driver’s vehicle was stolen.
“Sgt. Miramontes calls the acquaintance and they speak about an incident that had happened to her where her husband’s nephew, later identified as Sergio Rodriguez Vargas, had broken into their home on Sunday night (02/07/2021). Their home is later determined to be about a 1,000 feet North of where our victim’s vehicle was recovered,” the complaint stated.
When police contacted the Uber driver about his vehicle, the man told police there were several items in the vehicle that did not belong to him or his family, including a black duffel bag with the name Advanced Barber College on it that contained clothing, barber tools and a hair dryer.
A metal shovel with a broken wooden handle and a silver key with a key chain found in the vehicle also did not belong to the man.
Investigators then spoke with the director and co-owner of Advanced Barber College about a possible student, Rodriguez, who the director immediately recalled, police say.
She explained that Rodriguez had entered the program several times and had not completed it and was actually currently enrolled. She told police they loan students barber tools, and if they complete a certain amount of credits, they can purchase them, but if they don’t they have to return them.
The next day, the Uber driver picked Rodriguez out of a photo line-up and Weslaco police obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Rodriguez remained jailed Tuesday on a $100,000 bond, records show.
